Turkish parliament speaker meets president, counterpart in Poland

​​​​​​​WARSAW, Poland

The visiting Turkish parliament speaker met the Polish president and counterpart in Warsaw on Wednesday.

“Turkish-Polish friendship and alliance have deep and historical roots for six centuries,” Mustafa Sentop told reporters following his meeting with Polish President Andrzej Duda.

He said the two countries have taken important steps recently to further improve bilateral relations.

Sentop also stated that they want to strengthen the tripartite mechanism between Turkey, Poland and Romania by adding cooperation on the level of parliament speakers.

Underlining that EU membership is still a strategic goal for Turkey, he praised Poland’s support in this context.

Referring to the current migrant crisis on the Poland-Belarus border, Sentop reiterated that Turkey is in full solidarity with Poland.

Duda, on his part, mentioned the Polish purchase of Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 unmanned aerial vehicles and said more steps would be taken in security cooperation.

During a meeting with his Polish counterpart Elzbieta Witek, Sentop stressed that the addition of parliament speaker level to the existing trilateral mechanism between Turkey, Poland and Romania would be beneficial for all parties involved.

Witek, on her part, said that the Turkish-Polish inter-parliamentary friendship group works extensively.

She also praised Turkey’s support for Poland, particularly in the security area.

*Writing by Ahmet Gencturk in Ankara