The Ambassador of Turkey to Seychelles, Ms. Deniz Eke, presented her credentials to President James Michel at State House this morning.

The President and the Ambassador discussed the increase in trade between Seychelles and Turkey as well as people-to-people exchanges, the Blue Economy, tourism and aviation in their meeting.

After the accreditation ceremony Ambassador Deniz Eke told the national media that her talks with the President centred on various areas of cooperation where both countries have mutual interests.

She said that Turkey has excellent relations with Seychelles and that Turkey very much supports African integration, African solutions to Africa’s challenges and that Seychelles is an important partner of cooperation in the African continent.

"We agreed that there is huge potential that can be tapped in terms of commercial relations and investments and to make that possible the only thing that we need to do is to encourage more businessmen to come to Seychelles and more Seychellois businessmen to go to Turkey and see with their own eyes the potential that both our countries possess. It will be our job in the future to organize frequent delegations to visit at all levels, to bring our people closer and to make them aware of the potential that exits in our relations,” said Ambassador Eke.

Also present during the meeting were the Secretary General in the Office of the President, Mrs. Lise Bastienne, the President's Diplomatic Adviser, Ambassador Callixte D'Offay and the Principal Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Maurice Loustau Lalanne and the Turkish embassy's defense attaché, Captain Hakan Tolungüç.

Ambassador Deniz Eke is based in Nairobi.