Ankara to ask Prague’s support on ties with EU

ANKARA

Ankara will voice its expectations from Prague for the improvement of the Türkiye-European Union relationship during Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky’s visit to Ankara on June 24 and 25.

Lipavsky will pay a visit to Ankara upon the invitation of Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan. The two men will hold talks on June 25 to be followed with a joint press conference. The Czech minister will also visit Anıtkabir, the mausoleum of Türkiye’s founder Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, and the Turkish parliament.

According to diplomatic sources, one of the issues on the agenda will be Türkiye-EU ties and Fidan will express Ankara’s expectations from the Czech Republic. Türkiye’s accession process came to a halt in past years but the two sides are trying to revive the ties particularly on economy, trade and energy.

To this end, Türkiye is pressing the EU to launch negotiations for the modernization of the customs union. The two men will also review the latest developments in the Israeli-Hamas war and the Russian occupation of Ukraine.

They will also exchange views about the upcoming NATO leaders’ summit to be held in Washington on July 9 and 11. The summit, which will also mark the 75th anniversary of the alliance, will mainly focus on the war between Russia and Ukraine and the collective security and deterrence capacity of NATO in the face of rising geopolitical risks.

Fidan and Lipavsky will underline the importance of further deepening bilateral ties as this year marks the centennial of the friendship treaty between Türkiye and Czech Republic. On trade, the two countries aim to increase the trade volume to $10 billion from its current $5.8 billion. Sources recalled that a recent meeting of the Joint Economic and Trade Committee in Prague yielded good results for developing and diversifying bilateral economic cooperation.

The two countries are also interested in developing their cooperation in the defense industry through concrete projects, sources said.