4 ambassadors present credence

Four ambassadors accredited to The Gambia, yesterday presented their letters of credence to President Yahya Jammeh at State House in Banjul.

The ambassadors are : Mr Abdullah Bin Mohamed Bin Abdullah AL-FARISSI of the Gulf Sultanate of Oman, Mr Antonio Brito Sozinho of Angola, Mr Barry L Wells of the United States of America and Mr Abu Bakr Hussein Ahmed Abdel Daem of the Republic of Sudan.

Speaking to newsmen soon after presenting his credentials to The Gambian leader, ambassador AL-FARISSI of Oman assured of his willingness to build a stronger tie between the two nations on various matters of common interest.

According to him, he discussed with President Jammeh ways to explore in the areas of trade and investment.

He added that, despite the two government cordial relations, he will also encourage the private sector to invest in The Gambia as there are so many opportunities in the country. “This is one of our main targets and we have to invite investors from the private sector to invest in The Gambia. This is part of my duties” he concluded.

Antonio Brito Sozinho of Angola based in Guinea Bissau with accreditation to The Gambia, expressed delight at presenting his credential to The Gambian leader as the second non-resident ambassador of Angola to the Republic of The Gambia.

He revealed that part of his discussions with the Gambian leader centered on ways to strengthen the relationship between the two countries as well as the personal friendship between President Yahya Jammeh and President Jose Eduardo Dos Santos. “We also spoke on matters relating to our cooperation. We have to strengthen the cooperation between the two nations” he said.

According to him, there are quite a number of Gambian working in Angola. “. We all know that they are not only working to make their lives [better], but also working to develop Angola. Angola is just emerging from conflict five years ago. So the Gambians in Angola are really helping us develop our country which manifest the close ties we have with the people and government of this country” he said.

For his part, Barry L Wells of the United States of America, commended President Yahya Jammeh for the warm welcome accorded him during the present of his letter of credence. He disclosed that he had discussed with the Gambian leader on issues of mutual interest and to work to improve The Gambia-United States relations.

“We had a long standing positive relations between the two governments and its people. As US ambassador, my objective is to strengthen this strong relationship.

Today, we have a strong presence in The Gambia of Peace Corps volunteers working in villages and community levels across the country and I wish to work to improve the cooperation. I also briefed President Jammeh on the USA Ambassador’s Girls Scholarship Fund provided by the Agency for International Development in which we are able to support 15,000 Gambian girls to go to school who otherwise might not have the opportunity to do so. So this are the kind of cooperation we will continue to work on among other” he said.

Dialating on the Gambia-USA relations, Ambassador Wells said President Jammeh made special emphasis on it and he expressed hope that they can do something to improve the relationship.

He then described The Gambia as a great friend of the USA in the global fight against terrorism. “Despite being a small nation, The Gambia has done a great deal and we hope that the relationship will continue so that those elements of support can continue” he concluded

Ambassador Abu Bakr Husein Ahmed Abdel Daem of Sudan expressed delight to be received by President Jammeh to present his letter of credence as ambassador extra-ordinary of Sudan to the Republic of The Gambia. He revealed that he had a very fruitful discussions with the Gambian leader on various ways of improving and strengthening the bilateral relations as well as promoting cooperation between the two friendly nations.

“We also want to consolidate other possibilities of cooperation that are yet to be adopted” he said.

On efforts to enhance the relations hip between the people of the two states, Ambassador Abu Bakr Husein Ahmed Abdel Daem said the personal friendship that exist between President Yahya Jammeh and President Omar Al-Bashir can be exploited to exchange and encourage the private sector to have trade ties between the two nations. He revealed that there are other areas of cooperation in the pipeline which can be exploited by the two states.