TURKEY PLANNING TO OPEN EMBASSY IN CHAD, PERHAPS

UNCLAS NDJAMENA 000103 SIPDIS SENSITIVE STATE FOR AF/C, AF/SPG, NEA/MAG, AND EUR/SE NSC FOR GAVIN AND HUDSON PARIS FOR POL - DELIA AND KANEDA LONDON FOR POL - LORD ADDIS ALSO FOR USAU E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL PGOV LY SU TU ODIP CD SUBJECT: TURKEY PLANNING TO OPEN EMBASSY IN CHAD, PERHAPS LATER THIS YEAR -------------- A TURKISH EMBASSY IN CHAD? -------------- ¶1. (U) Visiting Turkish AMB-Designate to Chad Omur Solendil told AMB March 24 that Turkey was planning to open an Embassy in Chad, perhaps before the end of this year. A political decision had been made in Ankara, Solendil said, but now the funding issue had to be worked out. -------------- INCREASED TURKISH PRESENCE IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA -------------- ¶2. (U) Solendil said that the Chad Embassy was part of a broader effort to increase Ankara's diplomatic presence in Sub-Saharan Africa. Solendil, who is resident in Tripoli and accredited there, said that the Chad Embassy was one of 12 additional African posts that the Turks were planning to open. Slated for establishment at about the same time as the embassy in Chad would be embassies in Mali, Tanzania, Ghana and Cameroon. -------------- COMMENT -------------- ¶3. (SBU) A Turkish Embassy here would be useful if Ankara were to lend its weight to encouraging reduction in Chad-Sudan tensions, a solution in Darfur, and continued Libyan engagement to those ends. ¶4. Tripoli minimize considered. NIGRO