On the Meeting of the Foreign Minister of Belarus, Mr.Vladimir Makei, with the Foreign Minister of Turkey, Mr.Ahmet Davutoğlu
31 October 2013On 31 October 2013, within the working visit to Turkey, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belarus Mr.Vladimir Makei met with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey Mr.Ahmet Davutoğlu in Istanbul.
Within the negotiations, the parties marked the high level of the political dialogue between Belarus and Turkey and expressed an intention to reinforce the relations at the top level. Special emphasis was placed on the necessity of the of interparliamentary cooperation expansion.
The Heads of the Foreign Ministries discussed the issues of coordinated action within the framework of international organizations.
The sides considered the issues of cooperation with neighbouring countries, including Russia and Ukraine.
The parties also discussed the situation in the Middle East and North Africa.
During the meeting the issues of trade and economic relations were considered, in particular, the development of cooperation, implementation of common projects targeted at entering the markets of third countries.
The sides expressed their satisfaction with the growth in the trade turnover, underlining the insufficient utilization of the potential of the two countries. There was mentioned the possibility of a double increase in the mutual trade indicator (in 2012, the trade turnover between Belarus and Turkey made up 499.4 million US dollars).
Mr.Vladimir Makei noted that the economies of Belarus and Turkey are not competitive, but complement each other. The Minister highlighted the favourable conditions for doing business and the implementation of investment projects in Belarus, particularly taking into consideration the possibilities of the common goods and services market of the Customs Union of Belarus, Russia and Kazakhstan with the number of consumers of about 170 million people.