Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday that combating terrorism is a must and moral obligation for every government elected by the people.
"Fight against global terrorism tops the agenda of the world ...Turkey's fight against the banned Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) should be assessed in this respect," said the prime minister.
Erdogan made the remarks at a luncheon in honor of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani who arrived in Ankara on Friday for a two-day working visit to Turkey.
As for bilateral economic cooperation, Erdogan said that Iraqis a worthy economic partner of Turkey, adding that despite current negative circumstances, trade volume between the countries did not drop and Turkish and Iraqi authorities should work to boost the figure.
"We should exert efforts to bring a common vision to bilateral relations," he underlined.
Talabani, for his part, said that Iraq desired to establish long-term and strategic relations with Turkey.
Iraq wanted to improve cooperation with Turkey in many areas including economy, security, politics, oil, energy and culture, he said.
Meanwhile, the Iraqi president proposed to establish a "Supreme Political Council" presided by either the Prime Ministers or Foreign Ministers of the two countries which he said could work for the improvement and supervision of bilateral relations.
Commenting on terrorism issue, Talabani said the fight against terrorism was a moral obligation for all countries which called themselves democratic states.
Talabani, who said that Iraq shared Turkey's concerns on this issue, also noted that terrorism could be fought with joint activities and such "calamity" could only be overcome that way.
Talabani's tour came just one week after Turkey ended an eight-day large scale military incursion into northern Iraq against the PKK which was labeled by Ankara and Washington as a terrorist group.
Talabani, a Kurd, has long said he was interested in visiting Ankara, but Turkey's former President Ahmet Necdet Sezer had refused to invite him despite strong economic and trade ties, worrying that Iraqi Kurds were supporting the PKK.
Source: Xinhua
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