Finnish minister backs further Turkey-EU cooperation

Europe and Turkey need each other and their cooperation with a “win-win” view will bring results in trade, security and prosperity.

These were the thoughts of Finnish Foreign Minister Timo Soini speaking exclusively to Anadolu Agency in Ankara on Friday. Speaking after the 9th Ambassadors’ Conference held in the Turkish capital, Soini spoke about bilateral relations, Turkey’s EU accession process, ongoing Cyprus peace talks and the Syrian conflict.

In an interview held after meeting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, Soini said they talked about a range of issues “frankly and straightforwardly”.

Soini said he hoped a result would finally be reached in the ongoing Cyprus peace talks in Geneva, adding that “a recorded success” would be a good sign for both the divided island and to the region as a whole.

“It would function as a model that results are obtainable and that we can go further with this,” Soini said.Recalling that two “very difficult” chapters remained to be resolved in the talks, the Finnish minister said “no moments should be missed”.

“Expectations are high. We shouldn’t get the wrong results,” he added.

On Turkish-Finnish relations, Soini spoke about a Joint Economic and Trade Association meeting between Turkey and Finland planned soon and invited Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu to the Helsinki Policy Forum meeting scheduled for May.

Soini said there was €1 billion ($1.06 billion) of trade between Turkey and Finland and said an exchange of delegations was needed to increase this turnover.

The Finnish minister also said Europe and Turkey needed each other and cooperation was essential.”But if we don’t get that right, it will change to a lose-lose situation which would mean less security, less commerce and more problems,” Soini added.In his remarks about the refugee crisis, Soini said the EU needed to work with Turkey.”

If we don’t cooperate with that as Europe, there will be more problems — first for Turkey and then for Europe,” he added.