Turkey's fm says Turkish-U.S. relations important for regional, global stability

WASHINGTON (A.A) - Turkey's foreign minister highlighted on Friday importance of Turkish-U.S. relations in a speech he made at the American Turkish Council in Washington. Ahmet Davutoglu defined the United States as a global power and Turkey as a rising regional power. "Relations between the global power United States and rising regional power Turkey are important for regional and global stability," Davutoglu said during the a luncheon hosted by in his honor American Turkish Council.  Davutoglu said Turkey and the United States had perfect political and security cooperation on regional matters, however the deficiency in their relations was economic relations. "Turkey wants to be an economic partner of the United States, besides being a partner in security. This is our strategy," he said.  Davutoglu said the two countries had a good cooperation in countering terrorism, and noted that terrorist organization PKK continued to pose a threat for Turkey's security. The minister interpreted model partnership as diversification of Turkish-American relations, and said those relations could not be limited only with cooperation in security. Davutoglu said Turkish-U.S. trade volume was around 20 billion USD, which was insufficient for Turkey and the United States.  "If we are able to boost and diversify our economic relations, this can not only improve Turkish economy but also contribute to global economy," he said. Davutoglu said if Turkey were a member of the European Union (EU) today, Europe's economy would be more dynamic and competitive and had a better performance against economic crisis. "When 1.5 million Europeans lost their jobs in 2010, Turkey created new employment for 1.5 million people. They cannot still perceive new emerging power Turkey however the United States can understand it as Turkey's strategic ally," he said. On developments in Middle East, Davutoglu said everybody should understand main parameters of the change in the Middle East and in his opinion, developments were a post Cold War change. "The main fight in the Middle East is between those who want to preserve Cold War structures, and those who want to change it," he said. Davutoglu also said it was a delayed process. (Reporting by Mehmet Toroglu-Bariskan Unal)