TURKEY, RUSSIA TO CONTRIBUTE TO REGIONAL PEACE, STABILITY

ISTANBUL (A.A) - 08.06.2010 - The Turkish prime minister said on Tuesday that consolidation of relations between Turkey and Russia would contribute to regional peace, economic development and stability, particularly in the Caucasus.
Turkey's Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan defined multi-dimensional relations with Russia as a prior foreign policy item of Turkey.
"We aim to raise our trade volume to 100 billion USD in five years," Erdogan told a joint press conference with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Istanbul.
Erdogan and Putin met over breakfast at the Ciragan Palace on the sidelines of the The Third Summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA).
The trade volume between the two countries dropped to 23 billion USD in 2009 due to the global economic crisis.
Erdogan said Turkey provided a great deal of its natural gas demand from the Russian Federation, and Turkey would take new steps for use of more natural gas in industry.
Turkey and Russia signed earlier on Tuesday a joint declaration on tourism in Istanbul. The joint declaration aims at ensuring safety of Turkish and Russian tourists during the time they spend at each other's country.
Turkey Atomic Energy Agency (TAEK) and Russia's Federal Environmental, Industrial and Nuclear Supervision Service (ROSTECHNADZOR) also signed a cooperation agreement that foresees information and know-how exchange on licensing of nuclear facilities and activities.
Under the agreement, TAEK and ROSTECHNADZOR will cooperate in the areas of regulations for licensing and supervision, protection from radiation, management of quality of nuclear facilities, radioactive fuels and fuel waste management, and safety regulations for nuclear/radioactive materials and radioactive wastes, emergency reaction and readiness and training for supervisory personnel.