Turkey's Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Cicek expressed hope on Monday that trade problems between Turkey and Russia would be solved during Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's scheduled visit to Turkey.
"Tomorrow is an important day, the foreign minister of the Russian Federation will be in Turkey and thus, we will have the opportunity to discuss recent problems," Cicek, who is also the spokesman for the government, said after a cabinet meeting in the Turkish capital of Ankara.
Cicek said that the cabinet had not "taken a decision" to take measures against Russia's restrictions to Turkish export products, adding that Turkey wishes to maintain relations with Russia in the best way because Russia is an important country for Turkey.
Cicek said that Russia's foreign minister would discuss not only trade problems, but also recent developments in the Caucasus during his visit, and hoped that all problems would be solved as soon as possible.
Russia has been imposing non-tariff barriers against Turkish exports and restricted Turkish goods sent to Russia from some logistic centers in Europe.
Turkish government objected to these moves, saying that it was against rules of the World Trade Organization and other international agreements.
Trade volume between Turkey and Russia was estimated to reach 38 billion U.S. dollars at the end of 2008. Turkish investments in Russia is around 5 billion dollars, while Turkish contractors have undertaken Russian construction projects worth over 25 billion dollars.
Last year, Turkish exports to Russia reached 4.7 billion U.S. dollars, mostly automobiles, citrus fruits, tomatoes, synthetic thread, textiles and jewelry. Turkey imported mostly oil, natural gas and mineral oil from Russia worth 23.5 billion U.S. dollars.
Source:Xinhua
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