President Erdoğan: the Blue Stream, the TurkStream and the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant in particular, are long-term and strategic choices

 

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and President Vladimir Putin of the Russian Federation met with representatives of the Turkish and Russian business worlds following the 8. Meeting of the Turkey-Russia High Level Cooperation Council held in the Russian capital city of Moscow.

“WE HAVE REAFFIRMED OUR POLITICAL SUPPORT FOR OUR BUSINESSPEOPLE”

Addressing Turkish and Russian businesspeople at the gathering, President Erdoğan said the intensifying dialogue between the two countries reflects positively in economic relations and in two countries’ business worlds, and that the economic and trade relations between Turkey and Russia have since 1990s served as kind of a locomotive for the cooperation between Turkey and Russia.

Pointing out that their aim by meeting with businesspeople is to listen to opinions of businesspeople and to reaffirm their political support for them at the highest level, President Erdoğan went on to say that there are nearly 1,300 Turkish entrepreneurs doing business in Russia, which, he noted, is important in terms of the relations between the two countries’ business worlds. The President further noted that all relevant units continue their works to identify and resolve the problems of businesspeople.

“WE WILL EXPLORE NEW AVENUES TO REACH 100-BILLION-DOLLAR BILATERAL TRADE VOLUME”

Underscoring that the bilateral trade volume between the two countries reached 26 billion dollars in 2018, with a 15 per cent increase, President Erdoğan said that it is, nevertheless, still behind their goal of 100 billion dollars, and added that their aim, with a balanced trade structure, is to explore new avenues to reach 100-billion-dollar bilateral trade volume.

Drawing attention to the projects that Turkish entrepreneurs have realized in Russia, President Erdoğan noted: “I am of the belief that the Russian government will provide more support for our companies that invest in Russia by trusting in its future.”

President Erdoğan said: “Our cooperation with Russia in the area of energy is one of the pillars of our economic relations. All our partnerships in this area, the Blue Stream, the TurkStream and the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant in particular, are long-term and strategic choices.”             

Also touching upon the use of national currencies in trade between the two countries, President Erdoğan underlined that they will, thus, be able to protect themselves from the impositions of third countries and from the manipulative initiatives in currency markets.