WordBulletin

World Bulletin / News Desk

Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said Turkey would not want to adopt a policy based on rumors regarding its relations with Greece.

Giving an interview to the state-run television channel ERT of Greece on Sunday, a day ahead of Greek Premier Antonis Samaras's visit to Turkey, Erdogan stated the importance of bilateral cooperation.

"While we consider the partnership between the two countries as strategic, we want to add a different dimension to this partnership," said Erdogan adding that they would not adopt a policy based on rumors."

Regarding Samaras's visit, Erdogan said the delegations were set to discuss a number of issues, such as tourism, energy, telecommunications and defense while also signing new agreements in several of these areas. Erdogan said they had found the opportunity to talk about many of these issues with Samaras in their meeting in Doha in late January and they would make new steps.

Erdogan stated that the total foreign trade volume between the two countries by the end of 2012 was 5 billion USD, 3.5 billion USD of which was Greece's exports and 1.5 billion USD was the amount of Turkey's exports, adding that they were moving forward, protecting the rights of the neighbor and with solidarity.

Erdodan said their meeting with Samaras in Turkey would be one of the most important steps on bilateral relations of Turkey and Greece.