Cameroon – Prime Minister grants audience to the first resident ambassador …

The Prime Minister, Head of Government Philemon Yang on Tuesday 23rd Febraury 2010 granted audience to the first resident ambassador of Turkey to Cameroon, His Excellency Atilay Ersan at the star building, an honor for which he said he would be remembered and the same reason for which much is expected of him. The diplomat who presented copies of his letters on the 13th of January 2010 to the Minister of External Relations, a day after arriving in Cameroon, told the press after the 45-minute discussion that he was honored to have been received by the Prime Minister. "Turkey and Cameroon are two countries which established very good relations and there is no problem between our two countries and now my test is to promote those friendly relations to a much higher level, political, economic, social, cultural, military and educational fields," says Mr. Ersan as the reason for which he was in Cameroon. He further explained that he was paying a courtesy visit to all the Ministries, priority among which is the Prime Minister's office. Among the issues which he discussed with the Prime Minister, he cited bilateral visits, and the increase of trade relations, being that the present trade volume does not reflect the potentials of the two countries. He equally pointed out that cultural relations are almost non-existent, a state of affairs which he said calls for a lot of creativity. Talking about the decision by his Government to open up residence in Yaounde, he disclosed that before the recent development, Turkey had only twelve embassies on the continent of Africa. His Government decided in 2007 to declare the Years of 2008 and 2009 as the Years of Africa by opening up new embassies, including Cameroon. So far, eight have already been opened in 2010 and five more to come in the coming years. Serving as a career diplomat since 1938, His Excellency Ersan, who is coming to Cameroon from his previous post as Minister Counsellor in London, has worked in Holland, Spain, Denmark and Ethiopia.