Greece says economics will improve politics with Turkey

Greece yesterday renewed a pledge to promote Turkey’s closer ties with Europe and expand bilateral economic relations. “We shall do everything we can to facilitate Turkey’s European orientation... For us, deepening relations with our friends, the Turks, is a clear political choice, it is a historical imperative. We believe the best way for the two peoples to understand each other is economic cooperation, and in this we have recorded great progress in recent years,” said Economy and Finance Minister Giorgos Alogoskoufis after meeting visiting Turkey’s State Minister for External Trade Kursad Tuzmen. Tuzmen noted that the volume of bilateral trade has more than doubled since 1999 and said the target of $2 billion in 2004 is feasible. “There are 74 Greek companies active in Turkey and four Turkish companies in Greece — we are targeting a big increase in this number,” he added. The volume of bilateral Greek-Turkish trade rose 47.1 percent to a record $1.3 billion in 2003, with Turkey’s exports accounting for $902.64 million of that sum and Greece’s trade deficit rising 71.7 percent to $477.19 million.