ANKARA
Türkiye needs to advance relations with the EU based mostly on a “concrete and constructive agenda,” the nation’s overseas minister stated on Monday.
Presenting the brand new Overseas Ministry price range to parliament’s Planning and Funds Fee, Hakan Fidan stated Türkiye stays dedicated to its EU membership objective and continues to comply with constructive insurance policies to enhance cooperation and dialogue in all fields.
Fidan stated the EU is way from displaying a strategic imaginative and prescient sometimes, most lately in its annual report on EU candidate nation Türkiye.
“The challenges we face present that Turkish-EU relations are too strategic to be decreased to the narrow-minded pursuit of pursuits of some member states. Our primary expectation from the EU is to take concrete and significant steps that can re-accelerate the cooperation between us and our concrete membership course of,” he added.
Saying that Türkiye’s “weight and function as a stability and welfare actor” amid regional crises is evident, he stated it could be useful for each Türkiye and the EU if the EU takes this function under 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. Within the years since, the talks have been primarily frozen resulting from political roadblocks by sure EU members for causes unrelated to its suitability for membership, in response to 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’s a negotiation, it will likely be between two states, not between two communities, and the statuses of each events might be equalized earlier than sitting on the negotiation desk,” he added.
Underlining that they are going to proceed to sensitively defend Türkiye’s rights and pursuits within the Aegean and Japanese Mediterranean, Fidan stated they wish to advance relations with Greece with a “honest and constructive dialogue based mostly on a constructive agenda.”
“Our relationships with Greece are evolving in a constructive course with the assistance of the solidarity diplomacy that has been proven lately,” 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 attain a complete settlement.
Türkiye totally helps a two-state resolution on the island based mostly on sovereign equality and equal worldwide standing between its two states.
Gulf international locations and Africa
Fidan stated strategic cooperation with Gulf international locations has been carried ahead by means of high-level visits, bilateral agreements, and high-level cooperation mechanisms.
He added that the developments in political relations have had constructive results on different points as nicely.
“The whole commerce quantity between Türkiye and the six Gulf Cooperation Council member international locations has grown greater than 12-fold within the final 20 years. Our president’s visits to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates in July and the agreements signed throughout these visits represent an vital step alongside these traces,” he added.
Stressing that they comply with an strategy in favor of Yemen’s territorial integrity, Fidan stated efforts to resolve the humanitarian and political disaster within the nation will proceed based mostly on dialogue and mediation.
On ties with Egypt, he stated relations lately entered a brand new period with the mutual appointment of ambassadors.
“We are going to diversify our relationships with mutual contacts and visits throughout the framework of understanding and customary will with the Egyptian administration,” he added.
Including that important progress has been made in relations with Algeria within the final three years, he stated Erdogan pays 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 improvement in African international locations.
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 Coverage, which was introduced in 2013, has been efficiently pursued, Fidan stated: “We additionally welcomed the acceptance of the African Union, whose G-20 membership we assist, on the summit held in New Delhi this yr.”
*Writing by Gozde Bayar