ANKARA - Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday that Macedonian Prime Minister Vlado Buckovski's visit to Turkey would give a new boost to the bilateral relations between the two countries.
Prime Minister Erdogan and Macedonian Prime Minister Buckovski held a joint news conference following their tete-a-tete meeting.
''The cooperation between Turkey and Macedonia has been developing and diversifying. Our trade volume was about 200 million U.S. dollars as of end-2004. This amount is not enough at all. Mr. Buckovski and I have agreed to take measures to increase our trade volume. Mr. Buckovski will attend the Turkish-Macedonian Business Council meeting in Istanbul tomorrow,'' he said.
Prime Minister Erdogan said that he was planning to pay a visit to Macedonia in May, adding that Turkey was ready to provide Macedonia necessary assistance in restoration of the Ottoman-era bridge built during the rule of Sultan Mehmed II the Conqueror.
Meanwhile, Macedonian Prime Minister Buckovski said that Turkey was one of the countries assisting Macedonia during its struggle for independence.
Prime Minister Buckovski said that his visit could be considered a corroboration of friendly relations between the two countries.
He said that they would review the free trade agreement in order to resolve problems between Turkish and Macedonian businessmen.
When asked by a Turkish journalist whether they discussed Greece's not recognizing Macedonia with its constitutional name, Prime Minister Buckovski said ''I informed Mr. Erdogan on that there have been some differences of opinion between Macedonia and Greece about the constitutional name of the Republic of Macedonia. There is a footnote in NATO documents saying, 'Republic of Turkey recognizes Republic of Macedonia with its constitutional name'. We proposed Greece to resolve the problem with a similar footnote.''
Following the news conference, Prime Minister Buckovski was received by Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer.