Yesterday at 20:06
Photo President Zelensky Press Office
Ukraine and Turkey elaborated on an opportunity to sign a Free Trade Agreement in order to expand trade, economic and investment cooperation. This was stated by President Volodymyr Zelensky during a press briefing following the talks with President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
“We have agreed on further expansion of trade, economic and investment cooperation. In 2018, our bilateral trade volume amounted to over $4 billion. And I am sure that this is far from our potential limit,” Zelensky said.
According to Zelensky, unleashing this potential will be facilitated by the implementation of joint projects and the liberalization of bilateral trade.
“This will be also facilitated by the conclusion of the Free Trade Agreement. I hope that our parties will be able to reach a compromise on this issue as soon as possible and prepare all the necessary documents,” Zelensky said.
He also noted that the cooperation between the countries was extremely intense and stressed that, by the end of the year, the eighth meeting of the High Level Strategic Council would be held in Kyiv.
In addition, according to Zelensky, cooperation on the construction of roads, airports, seaports as well as cooperation in defense, energy and tourism was discussed.
Zelensky expressed confidence that Ukraine will demonstrate economic growth in the coming years.
“For this purpose, we will carry out a number of necessary reforms this autumn, which will make Ukraine a magnet for foreign investors. We have already started active work in this area and I am glad to invite Turkish business to Ukraine. I am the guarantor of your comfortable work in Ukraine. Let’s grow together,” Zelensky stressed.
Speaking of the results of the meeting with Erdoğan, Zelensky emphasized the achievement of mutual understanding and foundation for fruitful dialogue in the future.
“The generous Turkish land has repeatedly given us, Ukrainians, great victories. In Turkey, our singer Ruslana won the Eurovision Song Contest. In Turkey, Shakhtar Donetsk won the UEFA Cup. I believe that in the future, our countries will have a lot of great joint victories,” Zelensky said and invited his Turkish colleague to visit Ukraine.
In turn, Erdoğan noted that the parties had discussed all aspects of current Ukrainian and Turkish relations.
“We have revised the steps we need to take to develop trade and economic cooperation. Finally, the time has come to finalize the negotiation process for the Free Trade Agreement, which has been under negotiation for many years,” Erdoğan said.
Erdoğan also said that trade turnover between Ukraine and Turkey could reach $10 billion and that the achievement of this goal is quite realistic
“We have agreed with Mr. Zelensky to accelerate the activities aimed at investing in infrastructure and construction. We also exchanged views on the ways we can increase investments, on the common steps that can be taken to boost the economic development of our relationship,” Erdoğan said, noting that another topic of negotiations was cooperation in the security field.
“I think we will take all the necessary steps shortly to implement all these plans,” Erdoğan concluded.
