AK Party Deputy Chairman of External Affairs Suat KINIKLIOGLU, participated the World Leaders Symposium organized at the Ciragan Palace on September 14, 2010

KINIKLIOGLU made a speech in the panel titled “Turkey’s Engagement Policy:  What Turkey’s intensified trade and diplomatic cooperation means for its Western allies”, emphasizing the increasing power of Turkey at both regional and global level.

KINIKLIOGLU said “While developing the relations in the neighborhood, unlike what has been mentioned in the press, Turkey is not actually drifting away from the West” and emphasized Turkey’s foreign policy priority as EU accession. He added:

“Turkey is a democratic and secular country with majority of its population being Muslims abiding by the rule of law. As a strong NATO ally; a negotiating candidate to the EU; a member of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, and the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization; current Chair of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA); observer in the Arab League; strategic partner of the African Union; and thanks to other organizations that Turkey is affiliated with: Turkey is a networked and connected power.”

KINIKLIOGLU also drew attention to increasing commercial, political, cultural relations within the scope of neighborhood policy adopted by Turkey and said “With a GDP of around 915 billion US dollars, Turkey has the 15th largest economy in the world and the 6th largest in Europe. Despite the global financial crisis, Turkey maintains its high economic growth. Turkey will be among the fast growing economies in the world in 2010 and 2011. Our aim is to make Turkey one of the top ten economies of the world within a decade.”