PRAGUE - President Ahmet Necdet Sezer said on Thursday that Turkey pursued ''a constructive attitude'' towards European Security and Defense Policy (ESDP) and noted that Turkey would continue this attitude.
Expressing views about issues on the agenda at NATO summit, Sezer said that Turkey assumed a constructive attitude to conclude the ESDP project and reach a desired result in strategic cooperation between NATO and the European Union (EU).
Sezer expressed belief that if all parties behaved constructively, the two organizations would have a strategic partnership in the possible shortest time.
''Having a strategic partnership between NATO and the EU as soon as possible is of utmost importance for the security and stability of Europe. We continue our efforts with all our allies and European partners to this end,'' Sezer said.
Sezer stated that if everybody approached to the issue positively, NATO-EU joint exercise could be possible in 2003.
Turkey attributed importance to ''transparency'' in efforts to improve capabilities of NATO and the EU, Sezer stressed.
Turkey gave the message in the Prague Summit that ''it continued to expect that its current concerns about Cyprus question would be overcome'' about the ESDP.
In his speech, Sezer touched on improvement of NATO capabilities in fight against terrorism and adaptation of the capabilities to daily conditions and stressed the need to improve joint capabilities in protection against mass destructive weapons.
President Sezer, who also spoke about NATO command structure, pointed out that crisis regions were determined, and recalled that most of those regions were determined to be around Turkey.
Sezer said visibility of NATO headquarters in Turkey, which is close to crisis regions, was important, stressing that Ankara attributed importance to the consideration of objective military criteria during the studies which will start after Prague summit. Sezer wanted this element to be taken into consideration in determination of the place of headquarters, and stated that this was important for the Alliance.
One of NATO's stragetic headquarters will be in the United States, and the other will be in Europe. Decisions regarded with sub-commands will be taken soon. Command structure will be given shape with technical works.
In his speech, Sezer stated that Turkey supported the proposal of the United States with respect to NATO's Rapid Response Force.
Meanwhile it was reported that Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis, who chatted with President Sezer on Wednesday evening, stated that Turkey expected to get a date, and that they supported it.
Stressing that they want a solution to be reached on Cyprus, Simitis said they expected Turkey to support them.
Sezer told Simitis that Turkey called for a fair and realistic solution taking into consideration the facts on the island, and that it would continue to support the efforts in this respect.
Turkish officials said any ''bilateral meeting'' with Simitis was not in question, noting that the two leaders only chatted.