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  • Russian, Turkish leaders celebrate booming trade

    Agence France Presse
    Jan 11 2005

    Russian, Turkish leaders celebrate booming trade

    Alexander Nemenov - (AFP)

    MOSCOW (AFP) - Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish Prime
    Minister Recep Erdogan celebrated booming trade relations between the
    two Cold War foes during Kremlin talks in which the two struck new
    energy and military agreements.

    Putin -- who invited Erdogan for a private dinner at his lavish
    suburban Moscow estate Monday evening -- told the Turkish prime
    minister that economic ties were growing by the best possible
    scenario as old tension wanes.

    Erdogan, accompanied by a swarm of 600 businessmen, was paying a
    return visit to Moscow after Putin in December became the first
    Moscow leader to appear to great fanfare in Turkey in 32 years.

    "Our most optimistic forecasts about economic cooperation have come
    true," Putin told Erdogan as the two sat around a small table with
    their translators in the Kremlin's gilded oval reception hall.

    "According to our forecasts, trade volume could reach 15 billion
    dollars (annually) very soon," Putin said.

    Erdogan had forecast bilateral trade reaching up to 25 billion
    dollars by 2007 on his arrival to Moscow on Monday.

    Trade between the two countries reached 10 billion dollars last year
    to make Russia Turkey's second-largest trading partner after Germany.
    NTV television reported that Putin was "surprised" to hear the news.

    The two Black Sea states have a raft of diplomatic disagreements that
    the two sides try to hide at public meetings at which prized economic
    trade -- in both private and public sectors -- takes center stage.

    Both sides have previously accused the other of hiding enemy rebels
    -- Moscow charges that Chechen guerrillas hide in Turkey and Ankara
    counters that its independence-driven Kurdish minority finds support
    in Russia.

    Diplomatic ties have also been complicated by Armenia: a former
    Soviet republic which remains a close Moscow regional ally but which
    demands that the world accept that Turkey committed "genocide"
    against its people during World War I.

    But Putin made it clear he thought these disputes paled in comparison
    to the size of potential trade.

    Turkey relies heavily on Russia's natural gas supplies that run
    through the Blue Stream pipe under the Black Sea that Moscow hopes
    one day to stretch to Israel.

    Ankara already negotiated a discount in 2003 for the gas supplies and
    Turkish media reports said it was hoping to do the same for the
    coming year.

    Putin said vaguely that an agreement on an increase in gas supplies
    had been reached Tuesday but made no mention of the price.

    He also tried to appease his guest by saying he would press the
    international community to speed up its effort to lift an
    international blockade on the unrecognized Turkish-controlled
    northeastern half of Cyprus.

    The Russian leader said he spoke to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan
    on Tuesday morning about "plans for developing economic cooperation
    with the northern part of Cyprus and the lifting of its economic
    blockade.

    "We do not think that the political isolation of Northern Cypriots is
    fair," Putin said.

    Speaking in broader terms on the two sides' relations, Erdogan said:
    "Both sides have the political will to move forward."

    It remained unclear however what military agreements may have been
    struck by the two sides.

    Putin said only that "we have had previous plans concerning
    military-technological cooperation. I would like to say a few words
    about this issue, too."

    Erdogan replied that "we will have a chance to discuss the expansion
    of military-technological cooperation" before reporters were ushered
    out of the Kremlin hall.

    Erdogan will attend a meeting of Russian and Turkish businessmen
    Wednesday and inaugurate a Turkish Trade Center -- a
    9,000-square-meter complex of shops and business, in central Moscow.
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