India, Turkey to consolidate defence ties, explore FTA

New Delhi, Nov 22 : India and Turkey have agreed to consolidate defence ties, coordinate on counter-terrorism and expand trade and cooperation in the energy sector.

During a joint interaction with the media after one to one and delegation level talks held here last evening, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Indian counterpart Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh said: "We have agreed to collaborate further in areas of energy cooperation particularly hydrocarbons, science and technology, culture, tourism and people-to-people contacts.

"We both expressed our satisfaction at our ongoing contacts in the field of defence and felt further scope of cooperation in this area," Dr. Singh added.

India and Turkey aim to increase their bilateral trade to six billion dollars by 2010.

The two countries have also decided to explore the feasibility of a Free Trade Agreement (FTA).

"We have agreed that we need to establish a Joint Study Group in order to sign an FTA that is going to be used as a real product of instrument to raise the volume of trade between the two countries," Erdogan said.

Earlier addressing captains of Indian industry, Erdogan called on Indian businessmen to invest in Turkey.

He also said that the Ceyhan-Red Sea Oil Pipeline project would be implemented with India's participation soon.

This is the first visit by Turkish Prime Minister since 1986.

Erdogan will also visit Agra and Bangalore.

ANI