Phone Call with President Frank-Walter Steinmeier of Germany
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan spoke by phone with President Frank-Walter Steinmeier of Germany.
Bilateral relations between Turkey and Germany as well as regional matters, Afghanistan and migration issue in particular, were discussed during the call.
President Erdoğan thanked President Steinmeier for his kind remarks about the Turkish community in Germany and Turkey during a panel, held last Friday on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the Turkey-Germany Labor Agreement.
Noting the praiseworthy solidarity and coordination between Turkey and Germany as NATO allies during the evacuation process from Afghanistan, President Erdoğan stated that the same spirit should be maintained during this critical period Afghanistan was going through.
Touching upon the delivery of the necessary humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan by the UN and other aid organizations, President Erdoğan said that nobody would want another experience similar to the Syrian migrant wave of 2015, and that Germany and the European Union should support the neighboring countries that shoulder the burden of the Afghan migrants.
Pointing out that some European countries reduced the issue to merely border security, President Erdoğan underscored that Turkey did not have the capacity to shoulder a new burden of migration.
Voicing Turkey’s rightful expectation that the 18 March Agreement be implemented in all its aspects, President Erdoğan said that the European Union should swiftly take steps on such issues as restarting the accession negotiations, updating the Customs Union, and granting visa liberalization to Turkish citizens.
