Turkey, Russia may reach $100 bln trade target by 2019: Business council

After Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, met on Aug. 9 in a critical meeting, their first since Ankara seriously strained relations by downing a Russian jet last year, the economic and trade ties between the two countries were expected to grow in gradual manner. Turkey and Russia were reinstating their annual bilateral trade target of $100 billion, Erdoğan said in the meeting.

“A number of key decisions were made in that meeting, yet the implementation of these decisions will take some time. New committees have been formed between the related ministries from both countries to run this process,” said Turkish-Russian Business Council President and Anadolu Group Chairman Tuncay Özilhan. 

He told Anadolu Agency that through these steps, the relations were planned to get even better than they were before last November, when the crisis erupted between the two countries. 

“The trade volume will start to increase again by next year. The realization of the $100 billion in trade volume target will however take some time. The point is for bureaucrats, politicians and businesspeople from both countries to focus on this target…This target can be achieved by 2019 or 2020, yet the point is to keep the normalization trend on track,” he said. 

Saying that the establishment of the planned trilateral summit mechanism comprised of Turkey, Russia and Azerbaijan would bring about key benefits, he added: “Such an extensive platform will make a significant contribution to Turkey in terms of boosting its exports, construction services and meeting its energy demand.” 

The launch of the planned investment fund between Russia and Turkey will also fuel major projects, added Özilhan. 

Putin said Russia would phase out sanctions against Turkey step by step, while adding that the priority was to return to the situation before the jet crisis, in his key meeting with Erdoğan.