President Erdoğan noted that Türkiye has reached a position where it can now design, develop, produce and export its own items in defense industry.
Ankara: Turkiye President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan held trilateral and interdelegational meetings with President Serdar Berdimuhamedov of Turkmenistan and President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan at the First Summit of Heads of State of Türkiye-Azerbaijan-Turkmenistan.
Upholding his pride in Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan’s exemplary progress under astute leaderships, He said: “We will further crown our unity with the papers, which will be signed at the trilateral summit today.”
“We are all witnessing a very notable and meaningful day here at the Awaza Leaders’ Summit. I thank all my Turkmen brothers, especially my brother Serdar Berdimuhamedov, for their sincere hospitality,” President Erdoğan said.
“I pray to Allah that the Summit will lead to auspicious results for our countries, for the region and the entire Turkic world,” President Erdoğan said. “I wholeheartedly believe that our relations, strengthened by our brotherly ties, will be further reinforced on the basis of our strategic advantages. We aim to utilize the new privileges, developing with global and regional dynamics, for the prosperity of our people and stability of our region. With Allah’s permission, we will certainly succeed in every matter, about which we act in solidarity as brothers. The Patriotic War, which ended the 30-year-long occupation in Karabakh, is the last example of that.”
He highlighted the importance of the Organization of Turkic States, he said: “The completion of the full membership process of Turkmenistan, which joined our organization as an observer member last year, will boost our strength. My dear brother Mr. Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov’s participation in the Council of Elders has broadened our horizon. The admission of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus as an observer at the Samarkand Summit has consolidated our unity and solidarity. On the other hand, the Russia-Ukraine war has shaken the global security, food and energy pillars.”
“We are witnessing the negative effects of the war in many areas across the world, particularly in the record-breaking inflation rates,” President Erdoğan said. “As President of Türkiye, I have said from the very beginning that a war has no winners and peace no losers. I have said a fair peace can only be achieved through dialogue. From the very first day, we have made sincere efforts at the bilateral and other levels to stop the bloodshed and end the conflicts.
The negotiation process, started in Istanbul as a result of our attempts, is still the most respectable framework for the peace talks. With the grain agreement and prisoner exchange, we have seen that the way to peace can be paved if diplomacy is given an opportunity. Our talks continue with President Putin and President Zelensky in this regard. Inshallah, we hope to achieve first a cease-fire and then lasting peace in our region.”
“It is extremely important that we improve our transportation capabilities. We are going through a period when we must enhance our efforts to develop our trade volume. The regional trilateral platforms, launched by our relevant ministers with their counterparts, have yielded positive results. I believe the regional cooperation mechanisms and infrastructure projects, notably the Lapis Lazuli transit transport corridor, will contribute to increasing our trade volume as well as to regional stability,” President Erdoğan said.
“It is in our shared interest to cooperate in the context of the Middle Corridor, which stands out as a reliable transport route. We have completed a significant leg of the corridor with the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars Railway Line. We have ensured uninterrupted transportation on the east-west axis by taking into service Marmaray, Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge, Istanbul Airport, Osman Gazi and 1915 Çanakkale Bridges.
We should work together and speed up the border crossings and customs procedures to make this route much more efficient. It will increase our trade volume to lift or reduce to a reasonable level the toll fees and visas for transporters from our 3 countries, to reduce the visa fees, and to extend the validity period for visas. The documents, which will soon be signed on transportation and customs, will constitute a basis for our efforts,” President Erdoğan said.
“The coronavirus pandemic as well as the war and regional instabilities have reminded us of the importance of transportation in protecting supply chains, which has moved energy supply security to the top of the global agenda,” President Erdoğan said. “The importance of energy security and source diversification for the entire world, particularly for Europe, has been understood once again.”
“The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Oil Pipeline and the South Gas Corridor stand out in this regard. We are transporting the Caspian gas to Europe through this corridor, whose backbone is the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline. We should now start working on transporting the Turkmen natural gas to the Western markets in a similar way. We stand ready to cooperate with our Turkmen and Azerbaijani brothers in the field of friendship in the Caspian. Also, we attach importance to the development of mutual electricity trade between our countries in our region. In this framework, we are ready to work on electricity transmission from Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan to our country,” President Erdoğan said.
Image: Release, Turkiye President Office