Prime Minister Katainen met Turkish Prime Minister Erdo
During his visit to Turkey, Prime Minister Katainen had a meeting with the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on 18 April. The discussions in Ankara focused on the countries' bilateral relations, peace mediation, and Turkey's accession negotiations with the EU.
"In the world of foreign relations and international crises, Turkey has today a very important role. Our bilateral relations are excellent and as Finland was among the first countries to back up Turkey's membership of the European, we are able to hold confidential talks on a number of levels", said Prime Minister Katainen.
Minister for European Affairs and Foreign Trade Alexander Stubb and Minister of the Interior Päivi Räsänen also attended the meeting with Prime Minister Erdoğan.
"We discussed Syria and Iran as Turkey plays a crucial role in efforts to resolve the Syrian crisis and the situation in Iran. We agree that it is of utmost importance to safeguard the UN's role in both mediation processes."
In addition to Prime Minister Erdoğan, Katainen also met the Speaker of the Turkish Parliament, Cemil Çiçek, and the Minister of Finance, Mehmet Şimşek. Prime Minister Katainen and Minister Stubb had a meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan and a number of other sectoral ministers to discuss possibilities to strengthen cooperation between Finnish and Turkish companies.
"During the two-day visit, our ministerial delegation has discussions with ten Turkish ministers. This provides us with a unique overview of how our cooperation works and an excellent opportunity to broaden the scope of our political, and particularly, economic contacts."
On 19 April, Ministers Katainen and Stubb will attend a Finnish-Turkish business seminar organised by Finpro in Istanbul. Finpro is a global organisation building the growth and success of Finnish companies in international markets.
The Ministers will be accompanied by a delegation of Finnish businessmen representing some 40 export companies in the fields of energy, the environment, health, ICT, mining, metal and forestry. Companies representing financing, education, logistics and business services will also take part in the delegation
Inquiries: Kari Mokko, Director of Government Communications, Government Communications Unit, tel. +358 40 751 3281