Greece and Turkey on Friday October 26 took a key step toward further improving their often tense relations by ratifying two bilateral economic accords.
Greece's director of Turkish affairs, Kyriakos Rodoussakis, and Turkey's ambassador to Greece Ali Tuygan signed treaties on economic cooperation and on the promotion and protection of investments between the two countries, the Greek foreign ministry said in a statement. The two accords a part of a group of nine agreed upon by Greek Foreign Minister Georges Papandreou and his Turkish counterpart Ismail Cem in early 2000.
"With these two accords in place, the ratification procedure of the nine Greco-Turkish accords has been set up," the statement said. In addition to the two economic accords, the bilateral pacts include accords on customs, maritime transport, tourism, scientific and technological cooperation, the environment, culture, and security.
The Turkish foreign minister is to visit Greece in early November to resume the dialogue the two countries began after relations warmed when Greece aided Turkey during two major earthquakes in 1999.
Cem and Papandreou are also to discuss their roles in the NATO military alliance. Two subjects notably absent from the agenda are the two countries' air and sea space in the Aegean and the divided island of Cyprus. — (AFP, Athens)
© Agence France Presse 2001
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
