Nov 12, 2008, 20:05 GMT
Ankara - Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi on Wednesday night said his country would continue to support Turkey's bid to join the European Union stressing the strategic importance of Turkey in the region.
'Turkey should always be listened to and we defend this. Turkey has very important relations with all countries in the region,' said Berlusconi in the Turkish Aegean city of Izmir following talks with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
In return, Erdogan thanked Berlusconi for Italy's continued strong support for Turkey's EU bid and said that Turkish-Italian cooperation in many areas was increasing.
'Turkish-Italian foreign trade now stands at 17.5 billion US dollars and we are both agreed that we want to increase this,' Erdogan said.
The Turkish prime minister in particular pointed to Italian companies' future involvement in the construction of an oil pipeline between the Black Sea port of Samsun and the Mediterranean port of Ceyhun as an example of great cooperation between the two countries.
The close relationship between the two prime ministers was clearly evident when Berlusconi pretended to hide his face when Erdogan mentioned that Milan had beaten Izmir to win the right to host World Expo 2015. Erdogan joked that it was for this reason that Izmir was chosen to hold the intergovernmental summit.
In addition to meetings between Berlusconi and Erdogan, bilateral meetings were also to be held between the foreign, defence and interior ministers of both countries.
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