Turkish premier to discuss EU cooperation, membership in France

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan starts on Tuesday a
two-day visit to France. The main topics of his talks with French
President Nicolas Sarkozy will be economic and security cooperation,
as well as France’s opposition to Turkey joining the EU, ITAR-TASS
reports.

France and, of late, Germany, have expressed fears about accepting
Turkey, with a population of some 70 million Muslims, into the
European Union. Erdogan slammed Sarkozy’s position in an interview
with Euronews on January 30.

However, the French Foreign Ministry said that the main aim of the
Turkish premier’s visit was a strengthening of bilateral ties.

“There are some 300 French firms working in Turkey, employing some
100,000 people,” a spokesman said. “France remains the second biggest
investor in the country, the sixth exporter and second importer of
Turkish products.”

He added that French, Turkish trade turnover in 2009 was almost 10
billion euros.