Moldovan, Turkish presidents chair meeting of bilateral High Level Strategic Cooperation Council

Chisinau, 31 December /MOLDPRES/ – President of Moldova Igor Dodon, together with President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, chaired on Monday in Ankara, the first meeting of the High – Level Strategic Cooperation Council of Moldova and Turkey, the presidency’s press service has reported.

The head of state said that by conducting this meeting, the mutual desire to give bilateral relations the level of strategic partnership, just one year after its launch, was materialised in the margin of the visit of President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

During the meeting, there were established common objectives and strategy for developing relations in several areas, such as: political, military, security, economic, commercial, energy, transport, agriculture, tourism, healthcare, culture, science and humanitarian.

Due to that Turkey is one of the most important trading and investment partners of Moldova, ranking 6th position, by value of invested capital and 7th position, by value of trade volume, the parties agreed to organise in Ankara the next meeting of Moldovan – Turkish intergovernmental joint committee on trade – economic cooperation, which is the main mechanism for developing bilateral trade and economic relations.

Also, the interlocutors agreed to organise in Chisinau, in 2020, the first meeting of Joint Strategic Planning Working Group, established within Council, as to exchange views on topics of interest on bilateral, regional and global agendas, and identify priority areas and projects for cooperation, and it will be co – chaired by the Ministers of Foreign Affairs.

President of Moldova expressed his appreciation for consolidation and extension of bilateral legal framework, by signing on 30 December four Intergovernmental Agreements in such important fields as:

– conversion and mutual recognition of driving licences;

– setting and training of law enforcement staff;

– international combined freight transport;

– mutual establishment of cultural centres; 

Also, the participants in the meeting have established that the next Council meeting will be held in Moldova in 2021.