President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan received Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte at Vahdettin Mansion. During the meeting, President Erdoğan was accompanied by Minister of Foreign Affairs Hakan Fidan, Presidential Communications Director Fahrettin Altun and Chief Foreign Policy and Security Advisor to the President Ambassador Akif Çağatay Kılıç. After the meeting, which started at 17.20, Erdogan and Rutte held a joint press conference. Speaking at the press conference, Erdoğan said, “We are celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Turkey-Netherlands Friendship Agreement and the 60th anniversary of the labor agreement. What happened in such a period has a special meaning for our bilateral relations. Of course, our bilateral relations go back more than 400 years. During our meetings, we reviewed the multidimensional cooperation between our countries. We confirmed our determination to take our bilateral relations to further levels. Our commercial and economic relations continue to deepen and strengthen. The Netherlands is the largest foreign investor country in Turkey. Our entrepreneurs employ approximately 80 thousand people in the Netherlands with investments worth 6 billion euros. Our bilateral trade reached 13 billion dollars last year. We aim to increase this figure to 15 billion dollars in the first stage and then to 20 billion dollars. “The new partnerships we will establish in the defense industry, green and digital transformation and energy sectors will help us achieve this goal,” he said.
“THE ISSUE OF COMBATING TERRORISM WAS ALSO ONE OF THE PRIORITY TITLES OF OUR CONSULTATIONS”
Erdoğan said, “It is important to start work on updating the customs union with the European Union as soon as possible. I once again drew attention to the importance we, as Türkiye, attach to this during our meeting. We expect the support of the Netherlands in considering the European Union’s relations with Turkey from an equitable and strategic perspective. We also exchanged ideas with the Prime Minister about the developments concerning our common security, especially in Gaza and Ukraine. It is of great importance to stop the ongoing massacres in Gaza and to ensure a permanent ceasefire. Regarding the ceasefire and the uninterrupted delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza, I emphasized to the Israeli administration our expectations for taking the necessary steps for a ceasefire, peace and stability in its contacts with more regions. The issue of combating terrorism was one of the top priorities of our consultations. The heavy price paid by Turkey in the fight against separatist terrorism is obvious. We lost thousands of our citizens, including children, women, civilians and our security forces, in the attacks of the PKK. “I stated that no terrorist organization, especially the PKK and its extensions, should be tolerated in accordance with alliance law,” he said.
