EU needs to engage more with Türkiye, says foreign policy chief

By Nur Asena Erturk

ANKARA (AA) – The EU needs to engage more with Türkiye, the bloc's foreign policy chief said on Saturday.

"I think that we have to call for closer cooperation between the EU and Turkey, avoid confrontation, and increase cooperation. For that we have to reach out with Turkey, taking into account the Cyprus issue," Josep Borrell said at a joint news conference with Belgian Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib, following the informal meeting of foreign affairs ministers in Brussels.

"The conclusion is that we need to engage more with Turkey and work on areas where our interests converge and avoid irritants among us," he said.

Lahbib, for her part, said that Türkiye, as a candidate country, will be invited to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the EU’s biggest enlargement in its history.

The Eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus has been mired in a decades-long dispute between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, despite a series of diplomatic efforts to achieve a comprehensive settlement.

The Greek Cypriot administration was admitted to the EU in 2004, the same year Greek Cypriots thwarted a UN plan to end the longstanding dispute.

Türkiye is a guarantor country for the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) and fully supports a two-state solution on the island based on sovereign equality and equal international status between its two states.

An official candidate for joining the bloc, Türkiye applied for EU membership in 1987, and its accession talks began in 2005.

In the years since, the talks have been essentially frozen due to political roadblocks by certain EU members for reasons unrelated to its suitability for membership, according to Ankara.