TALLINN, Oct 10, BNS - Turkish President Abdullah Gul said while meeting with Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves in Tallinn on Friday that a decision had been made to dispatch a Turkish expert to the NATO cyberdefense center in Tallinn.
The two presidents spoke about the changed security situation in Southern Caucasus and about the role of NATO in wider terms, a spokesman for the president told BNS.
"The Russian invasion and unconstractive stance means a change in the earlier security architecture, because the attack was against values on which the democratic world and NATO are based," the Estonian president said.
Ilves underlined that the visibility of NATO both in the world as well as for the citizens of member countries was of utmost importance. The Estonian president recognized the Turkish contribution to the policing of the Baltic countries' air space.
Speaking about energy security and the meaning of Turkey, an extremely important focal point of energy transport, President Ilves underlined the importance of projects that help increase energy supply security, among other things to diversify channels of its transport.
"From the point of view of the European Union we can see the Nabucco gas pipeline project designed to be built from Turkey to Austria as making it possible to export Caspian Sea and Middle East gas to Europe," Ilves said.
During the meeting President Gul explained the Turkish initiative of signing a South Caucasian stability pact with the aim of bringing countries of the region -- Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey and Russia -- to a common table with the aim of restoring normal international intercourse and dialogue.
Ilves underlined that Estonian-Turkish relations were very good and the friendly relations between the countries were becoming closer in the spheres of economy, politics and culture.
The heads of states expressed their pleasure at the fact that since 1999 trade turnover between Estonia and Turkey had grown to 12-fold, that more than 20,000 Estonian tourists visited Turkey last year, four times as many as in 2003, and that the Turkish national carrier was planning the opening of an air route between Tallinn and Istanbul in 2010, which would further increase contacts between the two countries.
In President Ilves's opinion the information and communication technology sphere would offer the best opportunities for mutually profitable economic cooperation.
"We want to share with Turkey our experience in building the information society and to encourage businessmen of the two countries to cooperation between them," the Estonian head of state said, finding it important to exchange IT students between universities of the two countries.
Speaking about enlargement of the European Union, President Ilves said that Estonia continued to support accession of Turkey, a very important country internationally and a firm ally of Europe, and expressed pleasure at the Turkish moves until the present.
Turkish President Abdullah Gul and his wife are on an official visit to Tallinn at Ilves's invitation.
The presidents will open a Turkish-Estonian business on Friday in Tallinn as well as an exhbition on relations between the two countries; in the evening the Estonian President and Mrs Evelin Ilves will give a festive dinner in the honor of President Gul and Hayrunnisa Gul.
Tallinn newsroom, +372 610 8862, sise@bns.ee
