BRUSSELS - Turkey and Greece could reduce defense expenditures with mutual confidence, Turkish National Defense Minister Vecdi Gonul said late on Monday.
Gonul, who is in Belgian capital Brussels to represent Turkey in the meeting of European Union (EU) defense ministers and defense ministers of non-EU NATO member countries, met with Greek Defense Minister Spilios Spiliotopoulos.
Both Gonul and Spiliotopoulos declared common will to further improve Turkish-Greek relations.
Spiliotopoulos stated that his country decided not to open two defense tenders while Gonul said that Turkey had cancelled three defense tenders, the costs of which exceeded 10 billion U.S. dollars.
Two ministers expressed their will that two countries could limit their defense expenditures with mutual confidence on condition that they did not jeopardize security of their countries.
Gonul and Spiliotopoulos both stated that Turkey and Greece could use a part of the money they saved from defense budgets to ensure prosperity of their people.
Turkish National Defense Minister Vecdi Gonul, who went to Belgium on Sunday, attended a conference organized by non-governmental organization, New Defense Agenda, with NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer in Brussels and delivered a speech on ''Security in Europe from Turkey's Point of View and Turkey's Contributions to European Security and Defense Policy (ESDP)''.
In the conference, Gonul said that Turkey's accession to the European Union (EU) was of great importance for security interests of the EU.
Gonul is expected to return to Turkey on Tuesday.
(BRC-AÖ) 18.05.2004