Opinions & Interviews

MINSK, 15 February (BelTA) – Direct flights between Belarus and Turkey need to be day to day, Turkey’s Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said at the Belarusian-Turkish Business Forum in Minsk on 15 February, BelTA has learned.

“We need to improve air traffic between Belarus and Turkey. We need daily direct flights,” Binali Yildirim said. “We need direct flights not only between the capitals, but also between big cities and regions of the two countries. It should be comfortable for businessmen to come and study the opportunities of the other country,” he added.

It is also necessary to create conditions for the development of railway and river-sea services in cooperation with third countries, Binali Yildirim noted. This will help remove barriers in increasing mutual trade. “Trade and economic relations are of great significance. Transport and logistics should contribute to the development of trade,” he stressed. Efforts to increase tourism flows are also considered as important.

The governments of Belarus and Turkey aim to create the most favorable conditions to promote business contacts between the two countries.

Binali Yildirim emphasized that in the relations with Belarus Turkey is guided by the principle of mutual benefit and looks forward to further cooperation. “Today we have no problems in the bilateral relations,” he stated.

On the sidelines of the forum, in the presence of Belarus’ Prime Minister Andrei Kobyakov and Prime Minister Binali Yildirim of Turkey, the parties signed an agreement on the provision of gratuitous aid. According to the document, the Turkish side will transfer $500,000 in the first quarter of 2018 for the project to build a kindergarten with a pool in Minsk.