Türkiye needs to advance relations with the EU based mostly on a “concrete and positive agenda,” the nation’s international minister stated on Monday.
Presenting the brand new Foreign Ministry finances to parliament’s Planning and Budget Commission, Hakan Fidan stated Türkiye stays dedicated to its EU membership purpose and continues to observe constructive insurance policies to enhance cooperation and dialogue in all fields.
Fidan stated the EU is way from exhibiting a strategic imaginative and prescient on occasion, most just lately in its annual report on EU candidate nation Türkiye.
“The challenges we face show that Turkish-EU relations are too strategic to be reduced to the narrow-minded pursuit of interests of some member states. Our main expectation from the EU is to take concrete and meaningful steps that will re-accelerate the cooperation between us and our concrete membership process,” he added.
Saying that Türkiye’s “weight and role as a stability and welfare actor” amid regional crises is obvious, he stated it will be useful for each Türkiye and the EU if the EU takes this position into consideration in all its methods, together with the accession course of.
The report repeated criticisms of Türkiye from earlier years’ experiences on points equivalent to democracy, basic rights, and the judiciary, criticisms that Turkish officers reject.
Türkiye utilized for EU membership in 1987, and its accession talks started in 2005. In the years since, the talks have been primarily frozen as a result of political roadblocks by sure EU members for causes unrelated to its suitability for membership, in line with Ankara.
NORTHERN CYPRUS, GREECE
On the dispute on the island of Cyprus, Fidan stated the important thing to a good, everlasting, and sustainable resolution on the island is recognition of the inherent rights of the Turkish Cypriots, their sovereign equality, and equal worldwide standing.
“If there is a negotiation, it will be between two states, not between two communities, and the statuses of both parties will be equalized before sitting at the negotiation table,” he added.
Underlining that they’ll proceed to sensitively defend Türkiye’s rights and pursuits within the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean, Fidan stated they wish to advance relations with Greece with a “sincere and constructive dialogue based on a positive agenda.”
“Our relations with Greece are evolving in a positive direction with the help of the solidarity diplomacy that has been shown recently,” he added.
Cyprus has been mired in a decades-long dispute between Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots, regardless of a collection of diplomatic efforts by the UN to realize a complete settlement.
Türkiye absolutely helps a two-state resolution on the island based mostly on sovereign equality and equal worldwide standing between its two states.
GULF COUNTRIES AND AFRICA
Fidan stated strategic cooperation with Gulf nations has been carried ahead by way of high-level visits, bilateral agreements, and high-level cooperation mechanisms.
He added that the developments in political relations have had optimistic results on different points as effectively.
“The total trade volume between Türkiye and the six Gulf Cooperation Council member countries has grown more than 12-fold in the last 20 years. Our president’s visits to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates in July and the agreements signed during these visits constitute an important step along these lines,” he added.
Stressing that they observe an strategy in favor of Yemen’s territorial integrity, Fidan stated efforts to unravel the humanitarian and political disaster within the nation will proceed based mostly on dialogue and mediation.
On ties with Egypt, he stated relations just lately entered a brand new period with the mutual appointment of ambassadors.
“We will diversify our relations with mutual contacts and visits within the framework of understanding and common will with the Egyptian administration,” he added.
Adding that vital progress has been made in relations with Algeria within the final three years, he stated Erdoğan can pay an official go to to Algeria tomorrow.
He stated efforts are persevering with in Libya to make sure a political resolution that can protect the nation’s unity and integrity and allow the institution of everlasting stability.
Fidan stated Türkiye has contributed to peace, stability, and financial and social growth in African nations.
He added that Türkiye, which grew to become an observer member of the African Union in 2005, was declared a strategic accomplice of the continent at an AU summit in 2008.
Emphasizing that Ankara’s African Partnership Policy, which was introduced in 2013, has been efficiently pursued, Fidan stated: “We also welcomed the acceptance of the African Union, whose G-20 membership we support, at the summit held in New Delhi this year.”
Source: www.anews.com.tr