Turkey, Thailand sign 3 agreements

INTANBUL, Turkey, July 6 (TNA) - Turkish and Thai governments have signed three agreements involving a transfer of their citizens committing crimes to serve jail sentence in their own country, an academic cooperation and a training of diplomats. The agreements were signed Friday after a meeting between vising Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the Turkish capital of Istanbul. Yingluck, also defence minister, is paying four-day official visits to Poland and Turkey from July 3-6. Prime Minister Yingluck and her Turkish counterpart jointly told a press conference that both countries would also strengthen bilateral relations by boosting trade value to more than 1.5 billion U.S. dollars by 2018 when the two countries celebrate 60 years anniversary of diplomatic relations. On ways to boost economic, trade and investment cooperation, both governments have agreed to prepare a free trade agreement of which a joint feasibility study would be made first and a joint committee be established to enable combined trade value increased to more than 1.5 billion U.S. dollars in the next five years. Yingluck told Erdogan that the Thai government would invest two trillion baht on improving transport infrastructure, especially on building a high-speed rail which would serve as transport logistics for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Thailand has asked Turkey to build its rail line to connect with the ‘new Silk Road’ railways which connects Asian with the European continent, she said. The two governments which have agreed to exempt travelling visas for their citizens, aimed at boosting tourism, also plan to open consulate offices. The Thai government plans to establish consulate offices in Antalya and Izmir cities while the Turkish government plans to set up consulate offices in Phuket and Chiang Mai. Establishing consulate offices will help boost tourism and trade relations in future, the two leaders said. (End)