Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan stressed that his country aims to make progress in relations with the European Union through a positive agenda.
This came in a statement he made after participating in the informal meeting of his counterparts in the European Union countries “Geminisch” in the Belgian capital Brussels on Thursday.
Fidan explained that today’s meeting (Thursday) was important for reviving relations between Turkey and the European Union.
He added that the European side had not invited Turkey to these meetings for some time.
Fidan described Turkey’s invitation to the meeting as a “positive development.”
He stated that the meeting discussed in detail how to advance relations between Turkey and the European Union and the type of cooperation that can be developed between the two sides on regional and international issues.
He continued by saying: “Today, all my counterparts in the European Union stressed that regular dialogue and consultations with Turkey must continue in all areas, especially foreign policy, security and defense policies.”
-Advertisement-
Fidan added: “They also said that Turkey played an important role in the Russian-Ukrainian war, the war in Gaza, Iraq, the Middle East, Africa and the South Caucasus.”
He added: “They (the European foreign ministers) touched on the importance of close and deep consultation between Turkey and the European Union and the creation of a common policy.”
Fidan stressed the need to take concrete steps to accelerate relations between the two parties in the coming period.
He added: “First of all, the dialogue mechanisms that were suspended in 2019 should be reactivated. Our aspirations for updating the Customs Union still exist.”
Fidan pointed out that one of the priority issues for Turkey is visa liberalization to the European Union.
He explained in this regard that 66 criteria related to visa liberalization have been met, and that Turkey is working with relevant institutions to complete the remaining 6 criteria.
In this regard, Fidan said: “We continue to work to remove the difficulties and obstacles that our citizens face in the Schengen visa application process.”
“We believe that improving relations between Turkey and the European Union is in everyone’s interest. But we stressed that linking relations between Turkey and the European Union to the Cyprus issue is not a healthy way and will not yield any results,” he added.
