ANKARA (A.A) - 18.06.2002 - President Ahmet Necdet Sezer said on Tuesday that he had held sincere and productive talks with President Mohammad Khatami of Iran.
President Sezer returned to Turkey after wrapping up his two-day visit to Iran as the official guest of President Khatami.
Addressing journalists at Ankara's Esenboga Airport after his arrival, President Sezer stressed, ''during my contacts with Iranian officials, we took up relations between Turkey and Iran in detail. Also, we stressed the joint determination to further develop bilateral cooperation in every field.''
Expressing his satisfaction over development of relations between Turkey and Iran in recent years on the basis of good neighborly relations and the principle not to intervene in domestic affairs of each other, President Sezer underlined importance of security cooperation mechanisms in regard to protection of mutual interests.
Stressing that development of cooperation and common understanding between Turkey and Iran had made a valuable contribution to peace, stability and prosperity in the whole region, President Sezer said, ''during our meetings, President Khatami and I reached a full consensus of opinion to increase trade between our countries, and to encourage mutual investments. Current mutual trade volume between Turkey and Iran is about 1 billion U.S. dollars. However, this amount does not reflect the real potentials of our countries. Meanwhile, imbalance against Turkey in bilateral trade volume has begun to increase with the beginning of purchase of natural gas from Iran. During our contacts with Iranian officials, measures to remove this imbalance were taken up.''
Recalling that he had attended the first meeting of the Turkish-Iranian Business Council, President Sezer noted, ''I hope that Turkish-Iranian Business Council will undertake an important role in further developing economic and commercial cooperation between our countries. As you know, we signed an agreement to prevent double taxation with Iran. This agreement will remove an important deficiency in our economic relations with Iran.''
''I attended the inauguration of Turkish Language and Literature Department in two universities within the framework of efforts to strengthen cultural cooperation between Turkey and Iran. This initiative will make an important contribution to further development of cultural relations between Turkey and Iran. I hope that similar departments would be opened in other universities in Iran,'' he said.
President Sezer noted, ''President Khatami and I had the opportunity to review recent regional and international developments. We observed that Turkey and Iran shared the same opinions on many issues. We assessed the situation in Iraq. We underlined importance of protection of territorial integrity and national unity of Iraq. We wish that Iraq would abide by resolutions of the United Nations Security Council.''
''During our contacts, the issue of the Middle East was also brought onto agenda. We expressed our concerns about continuation of acts of violence in the region. Turkey wishes the sides to resume peace negotiations as soon as possible. A solution can only be reached through dialogue. We believe that foundation of Palestinian state is necessary,'' he said.
''The issue of Afghanistan was taken up at our contacts in Iran in detail. Settlement of peace and stability in Afghanistan, foundation of a broad-base democratic political structure, eradication of terrorist bases, and prevention of production of illicit drug are our main targets for Afghanistan,'' President Sezer emphasized.
Recalling that Turkey had joined the international security assistance force deployed in Afghanistan to provide security, President Sezer noted, ''we will undertake command of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in coming days. Turkey will assist Afghanistan in its rebuilding process. We are ready to cooperate with Iran on the issue. We have been cooperating with Iran also on regional level. As you know, Turkey will host the summit meeting of heads of state of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) in October. I invited President Khatami to the summit meeting. I will be pleased with hosting President Khatami in Turkey. I hope that my visit to Iran would yield positive results in regard to deepen bilateral relations between Turkey and Iran.''
President Sezer expressed his pleasure with the victory of the Turkish national soccer team which won the right to play in the quarterfinal in 2002 World Cup.