President Erdoğan: Cambodia is our important partner

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan held a joint press conference with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet at the Presidential Dolmabahçe Office.

Highlights from President Erdoğan's statements:

I welcome them once again to your presence. I see Cambodia, with which we have developed relations in recent years, as an important partner in the Southeast Asia region. We evaluated our relations during the meetings with the Prime Minister and the delegations. In 2018, we decided with the then Prime Minister to increase our trade to 1 billion dollars. We discussed with the Prime Minister our cooperation in the fields of defense industry, energy, education and culture, as well as trade and investments. We are pleased with Cambodia's interest in our defense industry, and we will develop our cooperation with them.

"IT IS SATISFIED THAT THEY JOINED THE GAZA PEACE BOARD AS FOUNDING MEMBER"

The contacts of TIKA and Yunus Emre Institute in Cambodia contribute to the advancement of our human relations. We contribute to the education of Cambodian students with the Turkey Scholarships program. Our bilateral cooperation serves to establish stability and prosperity. It is extremely pleasing that Cambodia joined the Gaza Peace Council as a founding member. I believe that their contributions to the work on the basis of a two-state solution in Palestine will continue. We hope that Cambodia's border conflict with Thailand will be resolved through dialogue and peace, and we continue to support the civilian population. We delivered aid to more than 3 thousand people with the Cambodian authorities, and we will continue humanitarian aid.

HUN MANET: Türkiye'S CONSTRUCTIVE PARTICIPATION IN PEACE IS PRAISEABLE

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet: Türkiye's proactive and constructive participation in international efforts to establish peace and stability, including in the Middle East, is commendable.

Eight years ago, the then Prime Minister of Cambodia made a historic visit to Türkiye. This visit laid an important foundation for advancing our relations and deepening the ties of friendship between the two countries. Today's visit is built on this foundation and opens a new page to our deep-rooted and steadily developing relations. Cambodia and Türkiye have maintained friendly relations and fruitful cooperation on the basis of mutual respect, understanding and interest for more than sixty years.

Earlier today, we had a comprehensive meeting with Mr. President Erdoğan, discussing the current state of our relations, our common priority issues and the future directions of our cooperation. We have taken concrete steps to strengthen our cooperation in the political, defense and security fields.