'Turkey-Latvia economic ties have potential to improve'

By Muhammet Emin Avundukluoglu

ANKARA (AA) - The trade volume between Turkey and Latvia is $600 million, but we have the potential to improve it, the head of the Turkish Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee said on Wednesday.

Meeting with his Latvian counterpart Rihards Kols in the Turkish capital Ankara, Volkan Bozkir said Turkish business activities in Latvia are still continuing "at an important level."

"The bilateral trade volume is $600 million right now, but we think we have the potential to improve it," he said.

The good parliamentarian relations between the two countries should continue by contributing to the diplomacy, added Bozkir.

For his part, Kols said Latvia backed the enlargement policy of the EU.

We think Turkey's EU membership was for the benefit of the EU, he said.

Turkey applied for EU membership in 1987 and its accession talks began in 2005.

But negotiations stalled in 2007 due to the objections of the Greek Cypriot administration as well as opposition from Germany and France.