Turkey's undersecretary for commerce, Kursad Tuzmen, will travel to Iraq on Tuesday, October 30, to attend the Baghdad international trade fair and for meetings with Iraqi officials, his office said on Monday.
Tuzmen will open the Turkish stand in the fair, beginning on Thursday, in which some 200 Turkish companies and 350 Turkish businessmen will take part, his office said in a statement. Tuzmen will also meet Iraqi officials for talks on reviving trade between the two neighbors, it added. The undersecretary is scheduled to return to Turkey on November 2, the statement said.
Turkey, a NATO ally that hosts US and British jets patrolling Iraq's northern no-fly zone, has recently spoken in favor of easing the 11-year-long UN embargo on Iraq imposed as punishment for its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
In the past several months, Turkish officials have held a series of talks with their Iraqi counterparts to revitalize trade in a bid to make up for Turkey's losses in bilateral trade since the 1991 Gulf War, estimated at more than $35 billion. ― (AFP, Ankara)
© Agence France Presse 2001
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
