Turkey, Azerbaijan to build simplified customs frontier

BAKU, Azerbaijan

Turkey and Azerbaijan agreed to establish a "simplified customs frontier", Turkish vice president said Monday.

The eighth meeting of the Turkey-Azerbaijan Joint Economic Commission (KEK) was held under the chairmanship of Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay and Azerbaijani Prime Minister Novruz Memmedovi with the agreement to contribute to the signing of a preferential trade agreement this year, to facilitate mutual trade and to expedite customs procedures.

Speaking at the meeting, Oktay announced they had signed the Eighth Term Joint Economic Commission Protocol during the meeting.

"The decisions taken by the commission today are indicative of our determination to move our economic relations further in many areas from trade to energy, transportation to education, agriculture to health on the basis of concrete actions," Oktay said.

Ankara is determined to do its part in cooperation with Baku to prevent commercial and economic activities with the Upper Karabakh and other occupied territories, Oktay added.

Upper Karabakh is the internationally recognized territory of Azerbaijan illegally occupied by Armenia through military aggression since 1991.

The Armenian occupation of the historical Azerbaijani lands led Turkey -- which sides with Baku in the conflict -- to close its frontier with Armenia.

The two compromised on all 147 topics discussed in the meeting, Memmedov underlined.

He stressed that the meeting would make a huge contribution to the development of close cooperation between the two sister countries.

Earlier in the day, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev met Oktay in the capital Baku.

The two sides agreed on cooperation in the defense industry, as well as agriculture and pharmaceutical sectors.

*Writing by Zehra Nur Duz