WASHINGTON D.C. - A Turkish parliamentarian had a meeting with a former U.S. secretary of state in the United States on Tuesday.
Egemen Bagis, an MP from the ruling Justice & Development (AK) Party, met Madeleine Albright, a former U.S. secretary of state and the chairperson of the Board of Directors of a think-tank named National Democratic Institute (NDI), over breakfast.
The NDI is an organization created by the United States government by way of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) to channel grants for furthering democracy in developing nations.
Bagis is representing AK Party in a convention of the Democratic Party in Denver.
Bagis and Albright discussed the crisis between Georgia and Russia, recent developments in Caucasus, energy security, Middle East peace process, Turkey`s European Union (EU) membership bid, Turkish-U.S. relations and Armenian allegations regarding the incidents of 1915.
During the meeting, Albrigt appreciated Turkish Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan`s efforts for world peace and underlined Erdogan`s Caucasus Pact idea which could bring together the parties in a peaceful platform.
Also, both Bagis and Albrigt reaffirmed importance of Turkey`s role as a mediator between Israel and Syria.
Bagis said that Albright, an influential person in the foreign policy team of Barrack Obama--the presidential candidate for Democratic Party, was one of the people in the United States who had perceived Turkey`s importance.
Therefore, Bagis requested that Albright should prevent initiatives that could harm relations in a possible Democrat Party administration, and that she should boost relations.
Albright assured Bagis that she would continue to do her best to further improve Turkish-U.S. relations.
Bagis also had talks with NDI President Kenneth Wollack, Georgia`s Vice Premier Giorgi Baramidze, British parliamentarian Baroness Uddin, and Reinhard Butikofer of the Greens party in Germany.
Albright is the first woman to become the U.S. Secretary of State. She was appointed by President Bill Clinton on December 5th, 1996 and was unanimously confirmed by the Senate 99-0. She was sworn in on January 23rd, 1997 and served as the secretary till January 20th, 2001.
(BRC-MS)
(POL)