STOCKHOLM, Oct 4 (AFP) - Swedish Foreign Minister Laila Freivalds is to pay an official visit to Turkey this week, with the Turkish bid to join the European Union expected to top the agenda, the Swedish foreign ministry said on Monday.
Freivalds, whose visit will coincide with the publication of a key European Commission report on Wednesday on whether it intends to open membership talks with Turkey, said she hoped the report would be positive.
"We regard a Turkish membership as very valuable and we hope that the EU Commission will deliver a positive report," she said in a statement.
"It is by bringing Turkey closer to the EU in various ways that we will best contribute to strengthening democracy and human rights in the country. We will also increase our bilateral contacts with the Turkish community," she added.
Freivalds will leave for Turkey on Tuesday and is scheduled to stay through Thursday, holding talks with heads of Swedish businesses in Turkey and with community representatives in the Turkish capital.
She is also due to travel to Diyarbakir, the main city in the predominantly Kurdish-inhabited region of southeastern Anatolia, to meet representatives of Turkey's Kurdish and Christian minority groups there, as well as several women's rights organizations.
During her visit, Freivalds will also announce the creation of a scholarship in memory of Swedish foreign minister Anna Lindh, stabbed to death in a Stockholm department store just over a year ago, for Turkish students wanting to go to Sweden to study human rights.