Turkey and Sweden will continue their strong partnership with a trade volume of 3.5 billion dollars and 200 Swedish companies have been operating in Turkey, Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told a press conference in Swedish capital Stockholm on Thursday.
Erdogan said one of the reasons behind Turkey and Sweden’s strong partnership is the flow of Swedish tourists coming to Turkey.
“Nearly 620,000 Swedish tourists came to Turkey in 2012,” he said, making Turkey the first choice for Swedish tourists.
Emphasizing that vacation tourism is not enough, Erdogan said education tourism and medical tourism is important in order for Turkey to integrate in the world.
- Sweden supports Turkey's EU membership
Sweden has been one of the main supporters of Turkey’s EU membership, since the ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party came to power in 2002, Erdogan said.
Sweden’s Foreign Minister Carl Bildt attended the intergovernmental conference where the Chapter 22 in Turkey’s EU accession negotiations opened in Brussels on November 5, Erdogan said.
“Carl Bildt’s attendance is very signicant for us, this is truly pleasing,” he said. “I believe Sweden will give its full support in the chapters 23 and 24.”
- ‘Solution in Syria is impossible with Assad’
Although Turkey and Syria had good relations in the previous years, as part of Turkey's policy of ‘zero problem with neighbors’, the two countries relationship worsened when the Syrian conflict began in 2011.
Erdogan said the reason why Turkey changed its stance against the Assad regime is because of the crackdown against the Syrian people.
“We tried to explain to the Syrian regime that they need to end the dictatorship and autocrasy, but unfortunately they did not listen,” Erdogan said.
Explaining that the normalization of Syria is not possible unless Assad backs down, Erdogan said Turkey supports Geneva 2 talks for a peaceful solution in Syria.
- ‘Ban Ki-moon should finalize a Cyprus solution plan’
Erdogan said Ban Ki-moon should come up with a plan to solve the Cyprus issue, which has divided the country in half because of ethnic problems between Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots.
Erdogan said he met with Ban on the sidelines of the G20 summit in St. Petersburg in September.
“I told him that Greece, Turkey, and the UK should take part in talks,” he said. “We would give advice to Northern Cyprus for a final solution if Southern Cyprus agrees.”
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