Ukrainian President Proroshenko and Turkish President Erdogan met in Kyiv
Ukraine and Turkey intend to increase the trade turnover between the two countries to $10 billion. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made a statement to this effect at a joint briefing with President Poroshenko in Kyiv on Monday.
“Today, having noted recent developments, we have decided to increase our trade turnover to $10 billion as quickly as possible,” he said.
The Turkish president noted that, as early as 2015, the leaders of the two countries declared their goal of doubling or tripling their reciprocal trade turnover by 2020.
Erdogan also said that with the Ukrainian president he had discussed steps in the fight against the oppositionist Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen’s organization (FETO), which Ankara believes was involved in an attempted coup in Turkey.
“With my dear friend, Mr Poroshenko, we discussed steps which could be taken in the matter of fighting against this organization,” he said.
The Turkish president also noted that this organization operates in many states. According to him, academic institutions have become a source of new recruits for the organization.
Erdogan also announced the opening of a Turkish cultural center in Ukraine.
“In order to meet the interest in Ukraine towards Turkish language and culture, we are opening a Turkish cultural center named after Yunus Emre,” the Turkish president said.
He thanked Poroshenko for his collaboration in this regard.
In turn, Poroshenko said that Ukraine has a lot of potential for collaboration with Turkey in the area of nuclear energy, and also for training Turkish specialists.
“Our state has significant experience and a developed scientific and practical base for facilitating the development of nuclear energy… In Turkey too, amongst other things, this concerns the training of Turkish specialists,” Poroshenko said at a briefing at the end of the talks.
He stated that the collaboration between Ukraine and Turkey is growing in the areas of defense, the defense industry and aerospace.
According to the head of state, the agreements between Ukraine and Turkey which were signed on Monday “will facilitate the increase and expansion of the scope for collaboration in these areas”.
“We discussed our collaboration in the energy sphere in detail” Poroshenko noted.
The president also said that Ukraine and Turkey intend to further their strategic partnership, and that a direct telephone line has been set up between the presidents of the two countries.
“Our goal is to deepen the strategic partnership between Ukraine and Turkey. On the basis of respect and international law, or goal is to ensure trust, ensure stability, ensure stable development, and flourishing in the entire region,” he said during the joint briefing.
Poroshenko emphasized that Ukraine and Turkey are striving to begin bilateral collaboration on all levels “in the spirit of trust and mutual respect”.
“The realization of our goals will, naturally, be facilitated by the special confidential communications line which was recently set up between the Ukrainian president and the Turkish President,” Poroshenko added.