The Turkish prime minister sent on Wednesday a letter to his Greek counterpart.

Turkey's Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan sent a letter to Greece's Prime Minister and Foreign Minister George Papandreou on October 30 in which he said that bilateral relations, tried to be boosted within the framework of mutual respect and understanding, would have positive impact on regional peace and stability.

In his letter, Erdogan said the Turkish government was ready to discuss all issues to improve relations with Greece in every area and therefore conveyed a number of proposals to create new cooperation opportunities between the two countries.

Erdogan said that Turkey attached importance to boosting its relations with neighbor Greece, and stressed that "zero problem with neighboring countries" was among the priorities of the Turkish foreign policy.

In the letter, Erdogan also expressed hope that Turkish government and the newly-formed Greek government would speed up the ongoing good relations and dialogue.

On October 9, Papandreou visited Istanbul and met Erdogan and Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on the occasion of the informal meeting of foreign ministers of South-East European Countries Process.

Papandreou also visited the grave of his fellow colleague Ismail Cem, where he was welcomed by Cem's wife and son, at the Zincirlikuyu Cemetery.

He put an olive branch to Cem's grave, cut of from the olive tree planted in Greece a decade ago by Cem and Papandreou to symbolise peace.


AA