"EU IS IMPORTANT FOR TURKEY; HOWEVER TURKEY IS AS MUCH IMPORTANT FOR EU OR EVEN MORE."

Minister for EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator Egemen Bagis attended the Meeting of Foreign Ministers of Southeast Europe Countries (SEC) within the framework of his official contacts in Moldova.

After the meeting, Bagis made a statement and said that the cooperation among the countries in the region had been the important issue for Turkey ever since.

He said that a group of countries attending the summit was EU members; another group was candidate countries which were endeavouring to get integrated with the EU.

Bagis expressed that Turkey participated in the meeting as the world's 17th and Europe's 6th greatest economy and one of the most powerful countries of Balkans.

Stressing that the summit was very important for regional stability, he announced that Turkey was going to become the head of this Institution as of the summit to be held that day. Bagis said:

"We see that many problems the world faces, are not issues that a country can solve by herself. I've said on all occasions, we see that %80 of the Europe's current problems and probable future problems could be solved by the help of integration and contributions of Turkey. Therefore EU is important for Turkey, but Turkey is as much important for Europe or even more. These platforms are quite effective in expressing this fact."

Resource: AA