Turkey is determined to conclude the free trade agreement with Ukraine by the end of the year, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Saturday, adding that the two countries aim to reach $10 billion trade volume with this deal.
Erdoğan’s words came at a joint press conference with his Ukrainian counterpart Petro Poroshenko held after the seventh meeting of the High Level Strategic Cooperation Council that convened in Istanbul.
Erdoğan said that the two countries will continue to improve their relations, adding that the number of tourists that arrived in Turkey from Ukraine in 2018 has exceeded one million.
We have also discussed regional issues in our meeting, Erdoğan said, saying that Turkey strongly backs the Ukrainian sovereignty, territorial and political integrity.
“We have repeatedly reiterated that we will not recognize the illegal annexation in Crimea,” Erdoğan said, expressing hopes for a quick and peaceful end to the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine’s Donbass region. The president added that Turkey supports the reforms in Ukraine.
He also said that the cooperation between Turkey and Ukraine will continue to end the presence of the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) in the eastern European nation.
“We trust Turkey and we would be happy to see it contribute to peace in Donbass by sending peacekeepers within the framework of a U.N. mission” Poroshenko said.
The meeting in Yıldız Palace in Beşiktaş district, which lasted around one hour and twenty minutes, was also attended by Turkish Trade Minister Ruhsar Pekcan, Defense Minister Hulusi Akar, Treasury and Finance Minister Berat Albayrak, Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gül, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu and Presidency Spokesperson Ibrahim Kalın. Ukrainian First Deputy Prime Minister Stepan Kubic, Attorney General Yuriy Lutsenko, Deputy Prime Minister Gennadiy Zubko and Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin accompanied Poroshenko in the meeting.
Prior to the meeting, the two leaders also held bilateral talks.
Poroshenko was in Istanbul to sign an accord with Patriarch Bartholomew I of the Greek Orthodox Church on the independence of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine.
