Visiting Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Tuesday denied there is discrimination against Turks in trade issues.
At a joint press conference in the Turkish largest city of Istanbul after talks with his Turkish counterpart Ali Babacan, Lavrov said "Concrete approaches were assessed and our customs administration proposed a simplified customs system."
Since last week, Turkish exporters began suffering delays at Russian border crossings. Turkey charged Russia as imposing non-tariff barriers against Turkish exports, saying it was against rules of the World Trade Organization and other international agreements.
Turkey has threatened to retaliate against new Russian import controls that are seen as an attempt to punish Turkey for allowing U.S. warships carrying aid to Georgia to pass through the Turkish straits, which connect the Mediterranean to the Black Sea.
Lavrov said "This is not an action directed against Turkey; Turkey is not being singled out," stressing "There can be no politics involved in trade."
He said that Turkey was the top trade partner of Russia, and the target of relations between Turkey and Russia was "cooperation on basis of advanced multilateral partnership."
Lavrov, who arrived in Istanbul for a working visit, said relations between Turkey and Russia had always been friendly and their investments and cooperation were developing each day.
Meanwhile, Babacan said he believed that trade problems between Turkey and Russia would be overcome with a flexible attitude and cooperation of Russia.
"We discussed in a sincere and constructive way the problems caused by keeping and checking Turkish products at Russian customs gates longer than usual," the semi-official Anatolia news agency quoted Babacan as saying.
Last year, Turkish exports to Russia were only 4.7 billion U.S. dollars, compared with 23.5-billion-dollars imports from Russia, mainly oil, natural gas and mineral oil.
Babacan defined Turkey and Russia as two neighboring countries, and said that Turkey was seeing Russia as not only a friend and neighbor but also as its main trade and energy partner.
The foreign minister underlined importance of cooperation in energy, and hoped that new joint projects would be implemented in the future.
"Turkey has a key position in transferring oil and natural gas of Russia and other producer companies in the region to consumer markets safely and economically," he said.
Babacan expressed belief that the cooperation between two countries would contribute to energy supply safety.
Russia is Turkey's largest trade partner. Trade volume between the two countries was estimated to reach 38 billion U.S. dollars at the end of 2008.
Source:Xinhua
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