Turkey eyes closer ties with Portuguese parliament

By Muhammet Emin Avundukluoglu

ANKARA

The head of the Turkish parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee said that his country wanted to improve inter-parliamentary relations with Portugal.

Volkan Bozkir met with his Portuguese counterpart Sergio Sousa Pinto in capital Ankara on Wednesday.

Recalling the strategic relations with Portuguese, Bozkir said: "We want to improve inter-parliamentary relations with Portugal."

For his part, Pinto noted that Portuguese was an important alliance of Turkey.

"We are admiringly following on Turkey's efforts for Syrian refugees," he said.

Turkey hosts more than 3.5 million Syrian refugees, more than any other country in the world.

The country has spent more than $32 billion from its own national resources for helping and sheltering refugees since the beginning of the Syrian civil war.