TURKISH MINISTER SAYS VISIT TO USA "HISTORIC"
Anadolu Agency
May 18 2010
Turkey
Istanbul, 18 May: Turkish State Minister Zafer Caglayan described
his current visit to the United States as historic.
Speaking to reporters prior to his departure from Istanbul’s Ataturk
International Airport for the USA, Caglayan said that "during Turkish
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s recent visit to the USA,
a working group comprised of two ministers from each country was
established to boost commercial and economic relations".
Mr Ali Babacan and I were authorized as the Turkish representatives of
the working group. Within this frame, we began working. Our relations
were frozen after an Armenian resolution was adopted by a committee of
the US House of Representatives. While the US President Barack Obama
made a statement on 24 April that we did not expect, our efforts to
resume relations continued. The Turkish undersecretary of foreign
trade will make all the necessary commercial efforts, Caglayan said.
Our trip to the USA will be a short one. On Wednesday [19 May] we
will meet with relevant US secretaries, representatives of various
think tanks and businesspeople, Caglayan said.
"This visit of ours carries significance as an historic one. Our
strategic partnership of more than 50 years with the USA is not
reflected on the trade figures. Out of 1.6 trillion US dollars’ worth
of US imports, only 3.2bn US dollars’ worth of goods come from Turkey.
We need to further develop our commercial ties with the USA. We
will conduct meetings so that US firms make more investments in
Turkey. In our meetings planned for July, Turkish businesspeople and
representatives of non-governmental organizations will hold talks
with their US counterparts," Caglayan said.
Zafer Caglayan is expected to return back to Turkey on Friday.