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Jul 28 08 7:29 AM

More news on the Alliances

Sudanese president to visit Turkey in August 26th July 2008





Sudan’s President, Omer Hassan al-Bashir is expected in Ankara next month to participate in a Trukey-African Union summit, it would be the first time he attends such gathering since this indictment by an international prosecutor.


The Turkish Foreign Ministry announced today the participation of al-Bashir in the Turkey-African Union Cooperation Summit scheduled to begin on August 18. He is one of the 20 head of state and government who confirmed the invitation addressed by Ankara.

"According to the information we have, the Sudanese president has confirmed he will be attending. We assume that under normal circumstances he will attend," Kenan Tepedelen, the coordinator for African affairs at the Foreign Ministry, told reporters late on Thursday.

Turkey is not party to the Rome Statute of the ICC at present. Ankara is a member of the unofficial group “Friends of the ICC” since 2004.


However during the recent years, Turkey has increasingly developed its commercial and military cooperation with Sudan.


Sudan and Turkey are signatories of a memorandum of understanding in areas of military industrialization, transfer of military technology, training, and provide military services. During his visit to Ankara al-Bashir requested Turkey to sell weapons to the Sudanese armed forces. Defense Minister Vecdi Gönül said at that time that his government is studying the request.






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Iranian president to visit Turkey late August 25th July 2008



Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is expected to pay a visit to Turkey next month at the invitation of his Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul, Turkish Daily News reported on Friday.

Ahmadinejad's potential visit has been on the agenda for a longtime but could not be finalized due to both the international crisis over Iran's nuclear program and Turkey's presidential and general elections that took place last year, according to the report.

The two neighboring countries have boosted economic, trade, energy and security ties in recent years and the energy ministers of the two sides recently signed a preliminary agreement on transferring Iranian natural gas through Turkish territory and allowing Turkish companies to develop three Iranian natural gas fields in southern Iran.

A couple of documents focusing on economic relations would be signed during the presidential visit, the report added.