The Gambia and Senegal have strengthened cooperation in a number of critical sectors such as education, tourism, security, cultural exchange and so on, during the Sixth Session of the Senegalo-Gambia Joint Commission meeting, which ended Tuesday at the Kairaba Beach Hotel in Kololi.

The two-day high-level meeting was part of the framework of the implementation of the executive directives of their Excellencies, Sheikh Professor Alhaji Dr. Yahya Jammeh of The Gambia and Macky Sall of Senegal, who are desirous of seeing that the cooperation reflects the excellent brotherly and friendly relations that bind the two countries and their peoples.

The communiqué that was issued at the end of the sessions in Banjul stated that the Joint Commission under the auspices of the two Foreign ministers of The Gambia and Senegal, afforded the two heads of delegation the opportunity to exchange points of views on issues of mutual interest at both regional and international levels.

The communiqué further indicated that during the meeting, the two ministers expressed their delight over the availability of the Senegalese side to favourably consider the request to avail the Gambian side with French teachers in basic education as part of technical assistance and augmentation of the number of sponsored Gambian students in Senegalese universities.

"The meeting has also enabled the experts to review cooperation on different sectors whose legal framework is composed of several agreements, conventions and memoranda, but deepen these areas for the benefits of the people of the two countries," the communiqué further stated.

The communiqué indicated that The Gambian and Senegalese experts have had fruitful discussions on the economic, sectoral and scientific matters in a brotherly and cordially atmosphere. "The two Foreign ministers during the meeting," it went on, "underscored the renewed commitment of their respective governments to put everything in place to ensure the construction of the bridge across the River Gambia in a bid to facilitate the movement of persons and goods, increase flow of bilateral trade and contribute immensely to the sub-regional process of integration". It also said that they also underscored the reinforcement of cooperation on the security through notably the exchange of regular strategic intelligence and expertise, "The two countries through their Foreign ministers are particularly satisfied with the option of giving a significant boost to the cultural exchanges and trans-border cooperation. They further expressed satisfaction about the engagement undertaken by the two sides to reinforce the legal framework of their cooperation through the signing of drafts agreements on culture, tourism and sports," it noted.

Conscious of the strong political will expressed by the highest authorities of the two countries, the communiqué stated that the two sides reached satisfactory conclusion which opened the way for greater perspective of cooperation. It disclosed that the two sides will now meet in Dakar by 2015, for the 7th session of the Senegalo-Gambia Joint Commission.