Ankara, Baku likely to sign deal on free trade

DM Monitoring

BAKU: Unity of Azerbaijan and Turkey will allow us to build the future together, Speaker of Azerbaijan’s Parliament Sahiba Gafarova said, media reports citing the parliament.
Gafarova made the remark at a meeting with the Ministry of Trade of Turkey Ruhsar Pekcan.
Welcoming the Azerbaijani delegation led by the parliament’s speaker, the Turkish minister noted that the trade turnover between the two countries made up $4.4 billion, but this figure doesn’t reflect the true potential of the two countries, and the goal is to increase trade turnover.
Pekcan noted that Turkey aims to sign ‘Agreement on a free trade with Azerbaijan’.
“Due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Turkey has faced difficulties in cargo transportation to Central Asia through Iran. Therefore, the Georgia-Azerbaijan-Caspian direction has become even more important,” she added.
Touching upon the development of women’s entrepreneurship, the minister spoke about the ongoing relevant work in Turkey.
“For this purpose, a new program is being implemented, and projects are continuing to increase the level of participation of women in business life.
The Turkish minister stressed that “a strong woman is a strong family, a strong economy.”
Speaking about relations with Nakhchivan, Pekcan brought to attention that Turkey attaches special importance to the development of trade relations with Nakhchivan.
She stressed that Turkey is satisfied with the level of cooperation with Azerbaijan, and expressed confidence in the further increase in trade between the two countries.
Expressing gratitude for the warm welcome, Speaker Sahiba Gafarova said that this is her first official visit.
“Turkey is a native country for Azerbaijan. Therefore, high-ranking officials of Azerbaijan make their first official visit to Turkey. Turkish officials do the same. We are “one nation, two states”. These are the words of the great leader Heydar Aliyev. These words fully reflect the truth, because we have common language, common religion, culture, history. The unity of our language and culture allows us to build the future together,” Gafarova stressed.
Touching upon the economic relations between the two countries, the speaker added that Azerbaijan and Turkey are doing very great work for the region, and an example of this are the projects Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan, Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum, and Baku-Tbilisi-Kars.