Erdogan receives his Bangladeshi counterpart

Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday separately met with President Abdullah Gul at the Cankaya presidential palace and Parliament Speaker Cemil Cicek at his office in the Parliament during her visit to Turkey in order to boost economic cooperation between the countries. The meeting at the presidential palace which was closed to the press was also attended by Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, Education Minister Omer Dincer and a delegation accompanying Hasina. Afterwards, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan welcomed Hasina in an official ceremony and hosted her in his office. Following bilateral and inter-delegation meetings, seven agreements were signed between Turkey and Bangladesh as part of a ceremony. Speaking in a joint press conference with Erdogan, Hasina said that the two countries have been enjoying magnificent relations for hundreds of years. "You have always supported us in our freedom movements. We take Turkey as an example in terms of the institutionalization of its parliamentarian democracy," said Hasina, adding that it would be pleasing to see Turkey-Bangladesh trade volume reach $3 billion by 2015 and that visa liberalization with Turkey will also increase opportunities for cooperation between the two countries. For his part, Erdogan said that they aim to increase trade volume between the two countries to $3 billion by 2015 and this process has been accelerated with seven agreements which have been signed. Touching upon the Syria issue, Erdogan said, "There is a six-point plan in the open presented by Annan. I do not think this six-point plan has been implemented. There is nothing like this out there." Erdoğan also called on Syrian authorities to withdraw troops from the cities and residential areas, saying that Turkey wants to see Syrian people living in peace in their country. Erdogan added that some people ask why Turkey is talking that much regarding Syria, and that Turkey shares 911-km border with Syria and there are nearly 25,000 refugees Turkey is hosting, most of whom have fled to Turkey recently.