Senegal
and The Gambia will convene “regular high-level meetings” between their leaders
to give impetus to bilateral cooperation, Senegalese leader Macky Sall said in
Dakar on Thursday.
“We
will launch regular high-level meetings to follow up on issues discussed,
review the joint projects and reduce any difficulties”, Mr. Sall told a joint
press conference held with his Gambian counterpart, a few hours after President
Adama Barrow arrived in Dakar to begin a three-day official visit.
According
to President Sall, “instructions have been issued to the ministers to avoid the
burdens of protocol and work directly on issues of common interest.”
To
that end, the Senegalese presidency revealed that a series of agreements will
be signed at the Presidential Palace in Dakar on Saturday, followed by the
declaration of a joint communiqué.
The
Senegalese leader said by making his first foreign trip abroad to Senegal,
President Barrow “absolutely demonstrated the new state of mind” that the
leaders of the two countries want to build.
“We
are one family, divided between two states by the circumstances of
colonization. We must constantly work together to overcome the obstacles in our
way and pass on our common legacies to future generations”, Sall added.
Elected
on 1 December 2016 as Gambia’s third president, Adama Barrow had to wait
several weeks to succeed Yahya Jammeh, who refused to cede power.
Barrow
had to take his oath of office at the Gambian Embassy in Senegal, before
returning to Banjul after former President Jammeh was forced into exile by
pressure from ECOWAS troops.
Barrow
returned home on January 26.
Source: APA News