ANKARA, May 11 (NNN-ANADOLU) – Turkey and Kazakhstan aim to reach the target of 10 billion U.S. dollars in bilateral trade, Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said yesterday.
“We evaluated the possibilities of further development and deepening of our cooperation,” Erdogan said, at a joint press conference held with visiting Kazakh President, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, in the capital, Ankara.
“The trade volume between Turkey and Kazakhstan exceeded 5.3 billion dollars last year. Thus, we have surpassed our target of five billion U.S. dollars in a short time. We will reach our target of 10 billion with speedy steps,” Erdogan said.
This year marks the 30th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries, Erdogan said, adding, they raised their cooperation to the level of enhanced strategic partnership.
The two leaders discussed regional impacts of the Ukrainian crisis and expressed their views for peaceful resolution. “We are on the same page on the territorial integrity of Ukraine.”
For his part, Tokayev called Turkey “a very important strategic partner for Kazakhstan.”
Turkey was the first country to recognise Kazakhstan’s independence, Tokayev said, stressing that, the Kazakh people will never forget this.
This is the first state visit to Turkey made by Tokayev after he took office.
The two governments signed 15 agreements in the fields of transportation, defence industry, military intelligence, information technologies, culture, agriculture, transportation, trade, customs, education, youth, communication and archives.– NNN-ANADOLU
