Azernews.Az

The first meeting of High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council established between Turkey and Azerbaijan last year is scheduled to kick off in Izmir next week with the attendance of a large number of ministers from both countries at a joint Cabinet session, Turkey’s English-language newspaper Today’s Zaman reported.

Turkey is set to hold a joint session for Turkish and Azerbaijani ministers October 25-26 under the chairmanship of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Erdogan and Aliyev will also attend the groundbreaking of a new Izmir refinery at an estimated investment worth of $5 billion, a joint initiative of Azerbaijani state oil company Socar and its Turkish partner, Turcas. The Azerbaijani share in the new refinery to be built on Petkim field is 75 percent, and it is planned to be functional in 2015 and help reduce Turkey's current account deficit (CAD) by enabling the production of jet fuel and similar oils.

Aliyev will bring along a large number of ministers, including ministers of economic development, transport, energy and foreign affairs, for the joint Cabinet session, a tradition Turkey has practiced with other countries in the past. During the session, the two countries are expected to discuss ways of boosting trade relations, and possible fields where ministries may be able to cooperate further will also be explored. Ankara hopes to reflect the "one nation two states" mentality on trade relations between the country, and the fact that the session will be held in Izmir is perceived as a gesture toward the Azerbaijani government, Today’s Zaman said.

The foundations of the high-level strategic council were laid in July 2010, when Turkish Economy Minister Zafer Caglayan visited Baku with more than a hundred-member delegation, which consisted of representatives from companies as well as press members and other government officials. Representatives of some of the companies in the delegation signed a trade agreement with their Azerbaijani partners at sums soaring beyond $10 million. Caglayan also negotiated the establishment of the council during his visit.

Another critical meeting is also to be held in November in Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, where the foreign ministers of Turkey, Azerbaijan and Iran are to meet in line with a previous agreement in one of the participating countries on a rotating basis to discuss ways of increasing trade volume. The first meeting was held in April in Iran, and the second one is scheduled to be held in Nakhchivan, according to diplomatic sources. The main focus of the meeting will be on providing a solution to problems arising at border crossings and issues of businesspeople trading in one of the three countries. Azerbaijani sources also noted that many Turkish ministers will be visiting Nakhchivan in the following days.

The most recent visit from a Turkish minister to Azerbaijan came with Defense Minister Ismet Yılmaz’s visit to the country last week, when he noted that the countries agreed to cooperate and move together to meet the needs of their armed forces and bolster defense. "We have decided to move, work and produce together to fortify the armed forces of our countries," Yılmaz was quoted as saying by the Anatolia news agency last Friday, as he visited his Azerbaijani counterpart as well as the Azerbaijani minister of culture and tourism, and top Azerbaijani army generals in Baku.

Yılmaz said both countries shared the same promising future and that they were sure to make progress. The minister noted that during his visit the countries had reached a consensus to ink agreements in the defense field and the teams from both sides would gather in the near future to come up with solid projects to that end.