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Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, who is on a visit to Romania on Wednesday, expressed after a meeting with his Romanian counterpart Luminita Odobescu his satisfaction with the success of Turkish companies in Romania, pointing out that the target for bilateral trade is set at 15 billion dollars by 2025.
"As you know, Romania is our neighbor and at the same time is our biggest trading partner in the Balkans, and Turkey is Romania's biggest trading partner outside the European Union. The volume of bilateral trade has seen significant growth in recent years. I want to emphasize the fact that in two consecutive years we topped the 10-billion dollar line, and our goal is to take this volume to 15 billion dollars by 2025. Our investments in Romania together with those coming from third countries have exceeded 8 billion dollars, and I am very satisfied with the success of our companies and the support we give to the friendship between our countries. We consider that the Turks and the Turko-Tatars living in Romania are a bridge of friendship between our countries. We are linked to our relatives here through a soul connection. They live here in peace and prosperity," Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said at the headquarters of the Foreign Affairs Ministry, agerpres reports.
"There has been a solid increase in bilateral trade in recent years. Turkey is currently Romania's main trading partner outside the European Union and the leading non-EU destination for Romanian exports. Thus, in the first 11 months of last year, bilateral trade stood at 9.4 billion dollars and we expect it to have exceeded 10 billion as of December 31, 2023. There is still significant potential in terms of bilateral trade, therefore we must continue to capitalize on any collaboration opportunity that allows us to improve our trade balance. There are many sectors with not yet fully realized potential, such as energy, agriculture, manufacturing and others that can support us in this endeavor. We also further encourage increased Turkish investments in the Romanian economy, with Turkey currently positioned 14th in the investors ranking, while Romania offers an attractive and open investment environment with numerous opportunities. We welcome cooperation in innovative fields, such as medicine. There is a host of opportunities in various fields and this shows once again how solid our cooperation is," said Luminita Odobescu.
