Turkey hopes to double its trade with North Macedonia to $2 billion

SKOPJE, North Macedonia (AP) - Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Thursday his country hopes to boost its trade with North Macedonia to $2 billion a year, or roughly double the current volume with the Balkan country.

Fidan said following talks in the North Macedonian capital with North Macedonia's Foreign Minister Timcho Mutsunski that Ankara wants to establish a "strategic council for cooperation" to handle the boost in trade. Neither minister gave a time-frame.

Turkey currently is North Macedonia's seventh-largest trade partner,

"We want to raise our economic cooperation to a level that befits our strong political relations. We aim to increase our trade volume with Macedonia to $2 billion,” Fidan said during a joint news conference with Mutsunski. “We talked with our esteemed counterpart about what steps we need to take to achieve this."

Mutsunski described the visit as “another important moment in our bilateral relations."

The two ministers also discussed issues related to the Turkish community in North Macedonia, which represents nearly 4% of the country’s 1.8 million population.

The Turkish foreign minister also raised the issue of combatting followers of U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, a former ally of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan whose movement Ankara now deems a terrorist organization known as FETO.

Ankara has blamed a failed 2016 coup on Gulen’s followers and has demanded the extradition of anyone it deems a FETO member from several countries, including from North Macedonia. Gulen denies any involvement in the attempted coup.

Turkey believes FETO operates in North Macedonia through educational institutions and commercial companies, and raises the issue in every meeting with officials from the Balkan country.

North Macedonian authorities respond that they are cooperating with the Turkish side and that they are acting in accordance with domestic laws and international agreements. There have been no extraditions so far of any alleged FETO members from North Macedonia to Turkey.

Fidan also planned to meet North Macedonia’s parliament speaker, Afrim Gashi, and Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski.

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Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, contributed.