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US-Turkey relations in a special moment, says US Assistant Secretary of State

23 May 2013 21:17 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. United States Assistant Secretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs Jose W. Fernandez has said 'US-Turkey relations in a special moment' after attending the Turkey-US Economic Partnership Commission 10th meeting in Ankara, APA reports quoting Todays Zaman.

Ambassador Mehmet TuÄŸrul Gücük, deputy undersecretary for economic affairs of the Ministry of Turkish Foreign Affairs, and United States Assistant Secretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs Jose W. Fernandez held a press conference on Thursday after the 10th Turkey-US Economic Partnership Commission (EPC) meeting.

Gücük said, "We discussed a wide range of issues related to energy, trade, investment, infrastructure, sectoral cooperation opportunities and opportunities for cooperation with third countries and have shown our commitment to increasing the trade volume between Turkey and the United States.”

"We decided to meet twice in a year and this autumn, we will meet again," Gücük added.

Fernandez said: "I am glad to say that each meeting I participated in had an even better impact than the previous one. I think we are in a special moment in our relationship. Just last week, a delegation of the Turkish prime minister and a number of businesspeople from Turkey were in Washington. You can see the synergy and the opportunities existed for both countries to work together. I think we are in a special moment; I think it is our duty as government officials to do what we can to make this special moment last as long as it can."

Speaking of the two countries' trade, which has grown rapidly in the two years since 2009, with trade volume doubling, Fernandez emphasized that "in this meeting, we talked about a number of concrete actions."

About the energy sector, Fernandez underlined that the delegations had “talked about cooperation [in] energy research and talked about geothermal energy.”

Fernandez said that "one of most exciting projects going on between the two counties is a ‘Near Zero Zone Project' in Ä°zmir in the west of Turkey."

"We talked about wonderful work which has been done in Ä°stanbul as a financial center,” Fernandez added.

In response to a question on trade asked by an Anatolia news agency correspondent, Fernandez replied: "Our trade number proves why exactly we are here … we believe in the potential. What we said to them during our dialogue with Turkey was to have further discussions with our export-import banks on nuclear energy financing and also to hear about new nuclear plant projects for Turkey.”

"There are a number of American companies that built the largest and most successful nuclear power plants around the world. If Turkey decides to go forward on nuclear energy, then I am sure American companies will be quite interested," Fernandez added.

Gücük led a Turkish delegation that included representatives of the Ministries of Economy; Energy and Natural Resources; Environment and Urbanization; Food, Agriculture and Livestock; and Transportation, Maritime Affairs and Communications; as well as the Investment Support and Promotion Agency of Turkey, Turkish Medicines and Medical Devices Agency, the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Organization, the Foreign Economic Relations Board, the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey and Turkish Eximbank.

Fernandez led the United States delegation, which included representatives of the Departments of State, Agriculture, Commerce, Energy and the Office of the United States Trade Representative.

The EPC is a key component of joint efforts to strengthen the economic partnership between Turkey and the United States, as outlined in the Turkey-US Framework for Strategic Economic and Commercial Cooperation (FSECC). The meeting reflects continued commitment to enhancing trade and investment between the two countries. This 10th meeting of the EPC focused on exploring ways to promote joint commercial opportunities, developing specific areas of cooperation on innovation and enhancing business-to-business ties.

In line with the decision to convene the EPC twice a year and in accordance with the bilateral wish to continue the momentum in Turkish-US economic relations, the two delegations agreed to meet again later this year in Washington, D.C.