President of the Foreign Affairs and Defence Commission Craxi in Ankara

(ANSA) - ISTANBUL, 19 NOV - The President of the Foreign Affairs and Defence Commission of the Senate, Senator Stefania Craxi, went on a mission to Ankara, at the invitation of the President of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Turkish Parliament, Fuat Oktay, for a series of political consultations with her Turkish counterparts. The focus of the meetings was the excellent bilateral relations in the political, economic, commercial, and cultural spheres and the intensification of the political dialogue on the main international dossiers: the Mediterranean, Africa, Ukraine, the Balkans, the fight against terrorism and irregular immigration and human trafficking. Common priorities in the NATO framework and prospects for strengthening the partnership between the European Union and Turkey were also discussed.
    "Turkey is a country with which we have historical political and cultural ties, of friendship between peoples, and we must have the ambition to deepen cooperation both in the bilateral and NATO spheres. It is an indispensable relationship for stability, development and peace in the Mediterranean and in the Balkan area," said Senator Craxi, who was accompanied on her mission to Turkey by the Italian Ambassador in Ankara, Giorgio Marrapodi, and met at the Parliament of the Turkish capital with the Presidents of the Foreign Affairs and Defence Commissions, the Italy-Turkey Inter-parliamentary Friendship Group and the head of the Turkish delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. Craxi also had a meeting with National Defence Minister Yasar Guler and Deputy Foreign Minister Mehmet Kemal Bozay.