Turkey's fm says Turkish-Dutch relations not only based on state affairs but also relations between nations

ROTTERDAM (A.A) - Turkish foreign minister said on Tuesday that Turkish-Dutch relations were not only based on state affairs but also rooted relations between two nations. Ahmet Davutoglu said his Dutch counterpart Uri Rosenthal and he discussed ways to simplify visa procedures. "We have taken significant steps, and we debated ways to simplify visa procedures for businessmen and a certain group of people," Davutoglu told reporters after attending the Fifth Turkey-Netherlands (Wittenburg) Conference together with Rosenthal in Rotterdam. Davutoglu said Rosenthal expressed support to resumption of talks on visa liberalization within the European Union (EU). The minister said Turkey and the Netherlands would celebrate the 400th anniversary of establishment of their diplomatic relations with several events this year, and the two countries were planning more than 300 events. "We are determined to boost our relations," he said. Davutoglu said the Netherlands was one of the countries where Turkish citizens living abroad integrated the most. Also speaking to reporters, Rosenthal said there were 388,000 Turks living in the Netherlands and 50,000 of them were residing in Rotterdam. Rosenthal said two countries would work to improve their commercial relations.