ANKARA - Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday that Turkey's main target in coming period was the decision on starting full membership negotiations to be taken during the European Union (EU) summit in December 2004.
Erdogan and Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende held a joint press conference following their meetings.
Erdogan said that they had taken up relations of Turkey and the Netherlands in all aspects during the meetings and they had also exchanged views on Turkey-EU relations, Iraq, Middle East and Afghanistan issues.
Erdogan said that they had given detailed information to Balkenende about reforms which Turkey has fulfilled in recent period regarding EU process. He added that they told Balkenende that Turkey fulfilled necessary adjustment to EU Copenhagen political criteria in the aspect of regulations and it was determined to put those reforms into practice completely and actively.
Erdogan said, ''we expressed that we are expecting the support of all EU countries and especially the Netherlands in our reform process and wanted them to take our progress into consideration during EU Summit which will be held in December 2004. As you know, the Netherlands will be EU Term President in the second half of 2004 during which important decisions will be taken regarding Turkey-EU relations.''
Noting that the Netherlands had an important place in investments to Turkey, Erdogan said that the Netherlands ranked the first with its investments in Turkey and the number of Dutch tourists visiting Turkey was nearly 900 thousand. He added that as 330 thousand Turkish citizens had been living in the Netherlands, this country was also important for Turkey.
Erdogan said that they had conveyed during the meeting that Turkey attributed very much importance to close relations and contacts with the Netherlands for coming period and it was expecting support of the Netherlands in this process. He added, ''we have emphasized that Turkey's main target in coming period is the decision on starting full membership negotiations to be taken during EU summit in December 2004. We have seen with pleasure that our cooperation with Netherlands that we are taking part in the same alliance and have partnership relations regarding Europe is strengthening on every field.''
Erdogan said that they were determined to further develop this cooperation which would serve mutual interests by concrete projects.
(GC-AÖ) 08.10.2003