Spanish PM to attend opening ceremony of metro line in Turkish capital

ANKARA

A Spanish company, Comsa Emte, was awarded two contracts to extend the Ankara Metro in February 2012. AA photo

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy will accompany his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, at a ceremony for the opening of a new line of the Ankara metro on Feb. 12, weeks before the local elections scheduled to take place in Turkey in late March.

Rajoy’s participation was announced in a written statement released by the Spanish Embassy in Ankara yesterday. Rajoy is set to arrive in Ankara for a scheduled official visit a day before the opening ceremony of the Batıkent-Sincan line. Today, the fifth intergovernmental summit between Spain and Turkey will take place in Ankara, Anadolu Agency said yesterday in a report posted from Madrid.

The summit was originally slated to be held in 2013, as it was traditionally held annually, but the leaders’ intense agendas forced the postponement of the summit, Anadolu said. While in Turkey, Rajoy will be accompanied by his country’s ministers of internal affairs, defense and public works, the agency said. 

A Spanish company, Comsa Emte, was awarded two contracts to extend the Ankara Metro in February 2012. The construction of the other line between Kızılay and Çayyolu will be finalized in the coming months, the Spanish embassy said.

According to data from the Spanish Economy Ministry, the volume of trade between the two countries totaled $8.425 billion over the first 11 months of 2013, Anadolu reported, noting that the figure was a 9.5 percent increase when compared to figures for 2012.