ANKARA - Turkish State Minister Mehmet Simsek said that British and French finance ministers praised structural reforms carried out in Turkey and reaffirmed their support regarding the reforms.
Simsek, who returned to Turkey on Monday after attending a series of meetings in Britain and in South Africa (G-20 meeting), told A.A that he held bilateral talks during the G-20 summit which highlighted Turkey's importance as a global power.
"In our tete-a-tete with British Finance Minister Alistair Darling, he reaffirmed that their support for Turkey's EU perspective will continue. We discussed Turkey's ongoing structural reforms and agreed to take steps to improve cooperation between the two countries regarding them," Simsek said.
"And at the meeting with French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde, I explained Turkey's transformation in recent years. I told her that the process of full membership to the EU has contributed to this transformation and she said these impressive reforms deserve to be supported," Simsek added.
Simsek also said that he met U.S. Secretary of Treasury Henry Paulson and International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn.
He said they discussed recent developments within the framework of latest review of stand-by arrangement with the IMF.