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SARAJEVO, May 7 (FENA) - Turkish Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina Haldun Koç told reporters in Sarajevo today that the visit of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to Bosnia and Herzegovina has been long anticipated and planned, and that it is a working visit.
He reminded that this official visit was officially announced during the official visit of Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim to BiH at the end of March this year, but it was announce for the month of June, however, the visit has been rescheduled for 20 May.
“At a time of the official communication regarding the announcement and suggestions for the date for President Erdoğan's visit, certain political events occurred in Turkey, which resulted in the announcement of early elections, which caused the visit to be rescheduled for an earlier date,” explained Ambassador Koç.
As part of this working visit, as the ambassador added, it is planned for President Erdoğan to meet with the BiH officials and discuss political, economic, regional and trade cooperation, but also the construction of the Sarajevo-Belgrade motorway, noting the fact that the Feasibility Study is in progress with regard to this project, and the preparatory activities are ongoing.
Ambassador Koç also noted that Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, who is on an official visit to Turkey, spoke at the highest and bilateral level about this project, and subsequently, Erdoğan’s visit to BiH will create an opportunity for further and detailed talks on this topic, but also on other projects important for improvement of bilateral cooperation.
“We see this as a working visit with a need to focus on economic, and trade issues and those related to additional investments and the development of cooperation between the two countries. We view this upcoming visit from this perspective," said Koç.
As part of this visit, the Ambassador added that it is scheduled for President Erdoğan to attend the 6th regular session of the General Assembly of the Union of European Democrats of Turkey, and during the visit he is also to be awarded the honorary doctorate from the International University in Sarajevo, all of the matters which have been decided ahead of the visit.
In addition to this, Koç emphasized that there is no need to attach any other meaning to this visit because the whole course of the preparations has been the usual one and it is part of regular activities for the preparation of such working visits, and to attach any other meaning to this visit would be unnecessary.
Koç especially emphasized that we should focus on specific mutual relations between BiH and Turkey, pointing to the volume of foreign trade that is growing rapidly, as well as the preparations for signing of the revised Free Trade Agreement between BiH and Turkey which are at its final stage.
“This agreement, unfortunately, due to the bureaucratic obstacles and the legal procedures necessary for its full adoption, will not be signed during this visit of President Erdoğan. However, it is important to focus on positive topics that can contribute to overall improvement of mutual relations,” underlined the Turkish Ambassador to BiH.
The revised Free Trade Agreement, after finalizing the negotiations, will enable BiH meat exporters to have much more relaxed approach to this activity, and the agreement will enable the export of 8.000 tons of meat from BiH in the next five year period.
The Ambassador believes that this is a new success and a new phase of doing business for BiH meat exporters and added that it is necessary to negotiate on some other agricultural products in order to enable BiH exporters to export these products much more easily to Turkey.
Koç stressed that even though this is an election year, both for BiH and Turkey, he believes that it is necessary to give more room to mutual support, instead of political manipulation, for the benefit and expansion of bilateral relations between the two countries, but also the relations in the region as a whole.
He has suggested it would be good to talk more about concrete projects in the coming period, and to spend more energy on economic issues, because there are large and powerful Turkish investors who want to come to BiH.
“Let us view this visit as a strong step for potential investors to come to BiH,” said the Ambassador, adding that the elections will take place and be over, and we will have in our hands concrete economic figures, indicators of trade and of relations between the two countries that are a permanent category.
He has urged all to view the arrival of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in BiH as an important step and a significant leap forward in the further development of relations between BiH and Turkey.
(FENA) S. R.
