Russia and Turkey liberalizing trade and economic cooperation

First Deputy Minister of Economic Development of Russia Aleksey Likhachev and Deputy Minister of Economy of Turkey Adnan Yildirim held another round of Russian-Turkish consultations on liberalization of the trade and economic cooperation. Representatives of the Russian and Turkish field-specific ministries and departments participated in the consultations, TPP-inform agency reports citing the Russian Ministry of Economic Development.
The sides summed up the interim results of the implementation of the arrangements under the Joint Statement to promote trade and economic and investment cooperation of Russia and Turkey. The Joint Statement was signed at the 5th meeting of the Russian-Turkish High-Level Cooperation Council in Ankara on Dec 1 2014. The arrangements referred to such issues as motor transportation, customs administration, phytosanitary and veterinary control of Turkish import in Russia etc.
One of the key topics discussed at the event was the launch of the negotiations for the Russian-Turkish Agreement on liberalization of service trade and investments.
In addition, further steps to enhance the Russian-Turkish economic cooperation were determined, including elaboration and signing of a mid-term intergovernmental program of trade and economic and scientific-technical cooperation for 2016-2018. The side discussed establishment of a Russian-Turkish Joint Fund to finance the investments projects implemented in both the countries as well as the efforts to improve the mechanism of calculations in the national currencies.
Earlier, Foreign Minister of Turkey Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu told Germany’s Zeit Weekly that his country would not join EU’s sanctions against Russia. Turkey is not an EU country and has no commitment to join EU sanctions, he said. In addition, Çavuşoğlu said, Europe is not consistent in the issue of sanctions, and business-circles in Europe continue cooperating with Russia. Çavuşoğlu urged European countries to be "realistic" and think about their national interests. Russia is one of the key foreign trade partners of Turkey, the Turkish minister said. The foreign trade turnover of the two countries for 2014 exceeded 31 billion dollars.