WordBulletin

World Bulletin / News Desk 

Turkish Parliament Speaker Cemil Cicek on Tuesday met with his Hungarian counterpart Laszlo Kover in Budapest.

Speaking to reporters after a closed door meeting with Cicek, Kover said relations between the two countries were friendly.

"Turkey has a crucial role for the EU. Turkey's economy developed rapidly in the past decade and Turkey's political influence has grown," Kover underlined.

"Turkey is a door for the west. It is a door opening to the Middle East, the Caucasus and Central Asia," Kover said.

"We must remember Turkey from the perspective of energy. The Nabucco Project goes through Turkey. We need to strengthen commercial ties between our businesspeople. Relations between the parliaments of Turkey and Hungary are excellent. Delegations between our two countries visit each other. Our two countries have similar developments on the constitution. We just completed working on our constitution. Turkey is presently working on its own constitution," Kover also said.

Cicek, in his part, said that his visit to Hungary was progressing well.

"Turkey and Hungary are two friendly countries. In my talks in Budapest, I evaluated bilateral relations and mutual expectations," Cicek stated.

We would be pleased to host Kover in Turkey, Cicek also said.

Touching on the world cup qualifier game between Turkey and Hungary on Tuesday night, Cicek said that "everyone wishes that their team wins. We do surely want to win tonight. While one of them may lose, the children of Atilla would certainly win".

Also commenting on tonight's game in Budapest, Kover said that "the game will be exciting. I hope that the game will end in an atmosphere of friendship".

Cicek later attended a luncheon hosted by Kover in his honor.