ANKARA - Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that they had held comprehensive talks during their official visit to Ukraine about co-operation opportunities between Turkey and Ukraine in the Black Sea.
Holding a press conference at Ankara's Esenboga Airport after his arrival from Ukraine late on Saturday, Prime Minister Erdogan said, ''during our official visit to Ukraine, bilateral political, economic, commercial and cultural relations between Turkey and Ukraine, and both regional and international developments were taken up in detail. We also held comprehensive talks on co-operation opportunities between our countries in the Black Sea which we consider a sea of peace and friendship.''
''Besides Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych of Ukraine, we met with President Leonid Kuchma and Parliament Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn. I believe that these meetings will enable us to take important steps for the future of the bilateral relations between Turkey and Ukraine,'' he stressed.
Recalling that they had attended the Turkish-Ukrainian Business Council meeting, Prime Minister Erdogan said, ''the current trade volume between Turkey and Ukraine is about 1.8 billion U.S. dollars. We discussed measures to be taken to increase our trade volume up to 5 billion U.S. dollars.''
Prime Minister Erdogan recalled that he had also paid a visit to the autonomous Republic of Crimea.
Noting that they had signed a comprehensive and joint action plan in order to further improve the bilateral relations between Turkey and Ukraine in every field, Prime Minister Erdogan said, ''the action plan envisages development of co-operation in efforts to strengthen security, peace and stability in the Black Sea region, and in fight against terrorism and organized crimes. It also includes multilateral co-operation in construction services, agriculture, transportation, the European Union (EU), NATO, environment, science and technology.''
Stressing that there were many Turkish contractors making business both in Ukraine and Crimea, Prime Minister Erdogan told reporters that they had also signed a protocol for Turkish Eximbank's loan of 20 million U.S. dollars.
Noting that they had exchanged documents of approval for judicial co-operation between the two countries, Prime Minister Erdogan said that the issue of fight against human smuggling was high on their agenda.
''We aim to further improve our bilateral relations with Ukraine in every field since we have good relations and co-operation with Ukraine under regional structures such as the Black Sea Economic Co-operation (BSEC) and the Blackseafor. Also, Ukraine is a country of importance in regard to its contributions to stability and security of both our region and Europe. I believe that our visit to Ukraine would further deepen our friendly relations with this country,'' he told reporters.
Emphasizing that high-level visits between Turkey and Ukraine would help efforts to accelerate the bilateral relations, Prime Minister Erdogan added, ''besides mutual investments, our countries can make joint investments in the third countries, especially in Iraq.''
(UK-MS) 04.04.2004