Turkish FM defines EU "strategical target" for Turkey

Speaking at a joint news conference with EU Commissioner for enlargement Stefan Fuele, Davutoglu said their meeting focused on three main topics, naming them as strategic vision of Turkey-EU relations, course of negotiation process as well as coordination of policies Turkey and EU carried out regarding neighboring regions.

Davutoglu said he had a very fruitful meeting in the weekend in Finland on strategic vision of Turkey-EU relations, "EU is our common unity and Europe is our common continent," he said.

"Turkey's membership is an opportunity for the EU and EU membership is an extremely important strategical essential target for Turkey," Davutoglu said.

Davutoglu said they also discussed course of negotiation process, noting that he told Fuele that Turkey's EU process should not be affected by political problems like Cyprus which were not directly related to the matter.

Davutoglu said they discussed Cyprus question comprehensively, views towards a comprehensive and lasting peace and shared the views that talks should be speeded up.

Davutoglu said he gave information to Fuele about the ongoing political reforms in Turkey and once again relayed the EU Turkey's demand for visa exemption by taking into consideration previous legal commitments.

Davutoglu said they also discussed developments in the Western Balkans, Caucasus, West Mediterranean, neighboring countries and energy security issues.

He said, "we reached to a consensus of opinion that EU should establish a new strategic dialogue mechanism with Turkey after Lisbon Agreement."


/World Bulletin/