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Turkey prepares to host four foreign ministers in four days
Turkey is to first host Celso Amorim, the foreign minister of Brazil, who is expected to arrive in İstanbul on Saturday. Brazil and Turkey jointly sponsored a nuclear fuel swap deal with Iran in May but the United States dismissed the deal, saying it failed to address the international community’s concerns about Iran’s contentious nuclear program. Washington then pushed for sanctions against the Islamic republic at the UN Security Council. Turkey and Brazil voted against the sanctions, a move which the US said was “disappointing.”
Despite UN sanctions, negotiations are still expected to resume on Iran’s nuclear program following a recent exchange of letters between Iran and Catherine Ashton, the European Union’s chief foreign policy official, who represents the group of P5+1 -- comprising the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany. The Turkish-Brazilian deal with Tehran also remains on table, Davutoğlu has said on different occasions.
Davutoğlu and Amorim are expected to discuss the possible revival of talks with Iran and the Turkish-Brazilian role in new negotiations. Iran earlier said the P5+1 group should be extended to include friendly countries, referring to Turkey and Brazil, but the world powers appear to be cold towards the idea of expanding the group.
Iran is expected to be a top item in talks with several top European foreign officials that will be visiting Turkey next week. British Prime Minister David Cameron, accompanied by his Foreign Secretary William Hague, is to visit Turkey on July 26-27. On the sidelines of Cameron’s talks, Hague and Davutoğlu are also expected to have a bilateral meeting.
On July 27, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle will visit İstanbul for talks with Davutoğlu. His visit is to be followed by that of French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, who will meet with Davutoğlu in Ankara on July 28.
In addition to Iran, tensions between Turkey and Israel, Middle East peace efforts and Turkey’s EU membership bid are also expected to be discussed during next week’s talks.
Earlier this week, Davutoğlu had talks with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov while in Kabul, Afghanistan to attend a major international conference on the war-torn country’s future.
On Thursday, he had talks with Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet and Foreign Minister Pham Gia Khiem in Vietnam, where he was attending a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). A cooperation agreement is expected to be signed between Turkey and ASEAN today.
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