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President and ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Poland's President Andrzej Duda met in Turkey's capital city of Ankara yesterday (March 16) and addressed the Russia-Ukraine war raging since Russia's invasion on February 24.
Speaking at the joint press conference afterwards, Duda said, "Nearly 100 thousand people cross the border every day. We can talk about a refugee crisis in Poland". The two leaders promised to support one another at NATO and increase the bilateral trade to 10 billion USD.
As reported by the state-run Anadolu Agency (AA), Erdoğan and Duda hailed bilateral ties between their countries as Duda conveyed his "gratitude" to Erdoğan for "sharing knowledge" on hosting migrants.
"Turkey is a very important state in the region. It has been making a lot of contributions and it plays a great role for peace," Poland's President reportedly said after the two leaders' meeting, noting that the most "important topic" in their discussions was the Russia-Ukraine war.
Within this context, President Andrzej Duda called on international organizations to join efforts to restore peace in Ukraine.
"There are many opportunities and a great capacity to advance bilateral relations between the two countries," President Duda said, adding: "We have reiterated that we hope our trade volume will exceed the figure of 10 billion USD". On defense cooperation, Duda stated, "I firmly believe that we will further strengthen our cooperation (in this field)."
'Growing relations in the defense industry'
For his part, President and ruling AKP Chair Erdoğan said, "As two NATO allies, we have exchanged views (on the Ukraine issue)."
Erdoğan briefly stated the following:
"The NATO Leaders' Summit will take place on March 24. We can have the opportunity there to continue our talks from where we have left off.
"That is so because the process between Russia and Ukraine is continuing. As the two NATO allies, we will have the opportunity to discuss once more what can be done and what kind of steps can be taken.
We have agreed on the need to speed up diplomatic efforts to stop the war. As Turkey, we continue our attempts aimed at achieving a ceasefire. In this regard, our Foreign Minister is holding talks in Moscow today. He will proceed to Ukraine tomorrow.
"We are conducting an intensive shuttle diplomacy. We will maintain our consultations and cooperation with Poland as well in the meantime.
"As a country hosting the largest number of refugees in the world for the past 8 years, Turkey is the country that can understand the best the challenges Poland faces. I hereby once again thank the Polish authorities for facilitating the border crossings and evacuation of our citizens in Ukraine. Their support for the delivery of our humanitarian aid to Ukraine is praiseworthy.
"During our talks, we also focused on the idea of crowning our strategic partnership with the foundation of the High-level Strategic Cooperation Council. We will accelerate our works in a bid to hold the first meeting of the council in Warsaw in the second half of this year."
Concluding his remarks, Erdoğan also talked about trade: "Our trade volume has increased by 28 percent to 8.3 billion USD this year despite the pandemic conditions. We are very close to our 10 billion USD target. We are also pleased by our growing relations in the defense industry".
About the situation in Ukraine
At least 726 civilians have been killed so far in Ukraine and 1,174 have been injured, according to the United Nations (UN) estimates, with the true casualty toll believed to be higher. More than 3 million refugees have fled to neighboring countries, according to the global body. (AEK/SD)
