Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has set a task bring up trade turnover between Turkey and Russia to $100 billion.
"The trade turnover between our countries already exceeds $25 bln, but our task is to bring it to $100 bln," Erdogan said at the opening ceremony of International Aviation and Space Salon MAKS-2019.
He noted that every year Turkey is increasing the export of aerospace products. "In 2018, the volume of exports in the aerospace industry amounted to $0.5 bln," TASS cited the Turkish leader as saying.
Erdogan briefly touched upon the latest achievements of his country’s aircraft industry mentioning the latest aircraft, helicopter and the development of unmanned systems.
The Turkish president said that Turkey’s economic cooperation with Russia is "deeply-rooted" paying particular importance to tourism sector.
The MAKS-2019 international aerospace show is to run in the town of Zhukovsky outside Moscow on August 27 - September 1. The event’s organizers are Russia’s Industry and Trade Ministry and Rostec. The aerospace show will be run by Aviasalon JSC. The MAKS-2019 is open for business events and business meeting on August 27-29. The aerospace show brings together 635 companies from all over the world.
A research fellow of the Institute for Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Director of the Center for Modern Turkish Studies Amur Hajiyev, speaking with the correspondent of Vestnik Kavkaza, noted that in terms of achieving such a substantial increase in trade between the two countries, joint production seems especially promising. "It is no coincidence that the Turkish president voiced this idea at the MAKS air show. Given the fact that Turkey was excluded from the fifth-generation F-35 fighter program, we can assume that the republic is now interested in building up military-technical cooperation with Russia," he said.
"Joint production may cover both energy projects and the military-technical sphere. In July, a very important statement was made by Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak on Russia-Turkey energy interaction in the Eastern Mediterranean. Turkey could invest in light industry and engineering in Russia and establish joint ventures to manufacture products that are currently supplied from Turkey," Amur Hajiyev suggested.
"On the other hand, Russia could establish investment sites in Turkey. It was not without reason that a Russian-Turkish investment fund was created to support trade, economic and investment initiatives of our entrepreneurs," the director of the Center for Modern Turkish Studies added.
The expert drew attention to the potential in expanding Russian tourist flows to Turkey. "Our tourists know the coast of Turkey very well. But there are also remote parts of Turkey, which are also interesting in religious and historical terms. On the other hand, Turkey's experience in the tourism sector would be very interesting for the Russian regions. The Turks are also very interested in the Russian timber industry and the electric power industry. In general, there are many opportunities for expanding and deepening the field of Russian-Turkish economic cooperation, starting from the fishing industry to the high-tech industries," Amur Hajiyev concluded.
