ANKARA - Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul and Economic Affairs Minister Laurens Jan Brinkhorst of the Netherlands on Tuesday signed a memorandum of understanding on economic cooperation.
Speaking at the signing ceremony, Gul said the memorandum of understanding would carry bilateral economic relations to a new platform, stating that economic ties would be further improved.
Gul said the memorandum of understanding would include economic cooperation and that market economy, sustainable development, projects among businessmen and program projects would be in question.
Underlining the traditional relations between Turkey and the Netherlands, Gul said trade volume between the two countries was more than three billion U.S. dollars, and that the Netherlands was the biggest foreign investor country in Turkey.
Gul said the Netherlands ranked the fourth among the countries sending tourists to Turkey the most, and stated that they exerted efforts to further improve bilateral relations in every field. He said they continued meetings with the Dutch officials on the EU as the Netherlands would take over term Presidency of the EU in the second half of this year.
Gul said Turkey and the Netherlands could work jointly in third countries, noting Iraq could be one of those countries. Gul stated that Turkey would be happy to share its experiences in Iraq with the Netherlands.
Replying to a question about Turkey's EU process, Gul said Turkey met Copenhagen criteria with the recent constitutional amendments and passed the critical threshold on the way to the EU.
Gul said many reform packages were adopted and laws were amended, noting that they prepared Turkey to full membership negotiations with the EU.
Brinkhorst expressed pleasure over the memorandum of understanding and noted that the memorandum of understanding envisaged joint projects between the Dutch companies and local companies in Turkey.
Brinkhorst said Turkey was in an important and strategic period in EU process, and added that significant progress was recorded in Turkey which he could not imagine five years ago.
Brinkhorst said he was optimistic toward Turkey's EU process, and stated that a stable and democratic Turkey was important for Europe.
Speaking about cooperation in Iraq, the Dutch minister said Turkey had much information on this country and that his country would benefit from Turkey's local and strategic information.
(AY-AÖ) 25.05.2004