ATHENS – The 5th session of the Greek-Turkish Joint Economic Committee concluded in Athens on Monday with the signing of a Protocol by Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs for Economic Diplomacy and Openness Kostas Fragogiannis and Turkish Deputy Minister of Trade, Mustafa Tuzcu.

According to a joint announcement, the heads of the two delegations expressed satisfaction with the re-activation of the committee, whose last session was held more than 11 years ago in Ankara, in October 2010. The two sides also expressed their commitment to continue working to achieve progress in issues included in the Positive Agenda, with emphasis on promoting economic cooperation and trade transactions between the two countries.

The issues discussed by the committee included:

a) Bilateral trade and prospects for differentiating and boosting trade transactions

b) Initiatives for investments and to encourage businesses to initiate joint ventures in Greece and Turkey

c) Increasing cooperation in the energy sector to ensure energy sufficiency

d) Cooperation in the protection of the environment, waste management, water resources and issues relating to climate change

e) Cooperation in transport

f) trade transactions relating to food and agricultural products

g) resumption of bilateral cooperation in research and technology

With respect to tourism, the two sides expressed satisfaction with the progress of bilateral cooperation in this area during the 4th session of the Greek-Turkish Joint Committee on Tourism and the 9th Turkey-Greece Tourism Forum held in November 2021 in Izmir and repeated their commitment to explore ways to enhance cooperation in order to increase tourist flows between the two countries.