UKRAINE-CRISIS/ERDOGAN POROSHENKO NEWSER Turkey offers Ukraine $50 mln loan - Poroshenko

Record ID: 217784

  • Title: UKRAINE-CRISIS/ERDOGAN POROSHENKO NEWSER Turkey offers Ukraine $50 mln loan - Poroshenko
  • Date: 20th March 2015
  • Summary: KIEV, UKRAINE (MARCH 20, 2015) (REUTERS) UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT PETRO POROSHENKO AND TURKISH PRESIDENT RECEP TAYYIP ERDOGAN ARRIVING FOR NEWS CONFERENCE UKRAINIAN TRIDENT CREST POROSHENKO AND ERDOGAN TAKING SEATS POROSHENKO SIGNING DOCUMENT POROSHENKO NEXT TO ERDOGAN DIPLOMATS LOOKING ON POROSHENKO AND ERDOGAN SHAKING HANDS UKRAINIAN PRESIDENTIAL ADMINISTRATION STAFF (SOUNDBI
  • Embargoed: 4th April 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Ukraine
  • Country: Ukraine
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA4RRTQZISTDZXHBT2C5MA9YAQX
  • Story Text: Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko welcomed his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Kiev on Friday (March 20), and thanked him for Turkish assistance to Ukraine's economy.
    "I thank President Erdogan for comprehensive encouragement of Turkish investment into Ukraine and proof of it is today's signing of a cheque for over 3 billion hryvnias ($158 million) of investments into Ukraine," Poroshenko told journalists at a joint news conference with Erdogan.
    Poroshenko also said Turkey had offered a $50 million loan to Ukraine to help cover its budget deficit.
    "I'm also thank President Erdogan for the decision to offer a loan of $50 million towards covering the budget deficit," he said following a one-on-one meeting with Erdogan.
    Turkey also offered Ukraine $10 million in humanitarian assistance, Poroshenko said.
    Erdogan has called for the rights of Crimean Tatars to be protected during his one day official visit to Kiev, but avoided outright criticism of trade partner Russia.
    "We have expressed our support for the territorial integrity, political union and sovereignty of Ukraine, including Crimea, in every platform," Erdogan said, voicing support for the Minsk ceasefire brokered by Germany and France in February.
    "And we also wish that Ukraine further supports and takes care of the rights of all ethnic and religious groups and first of all Crimean Tatars who live on the territory of Ukraine," he said according to the official translation.
    Turks have close kinship bonds with the Muslim, Turkic-speaking Tatar minority in Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula Moscow annexed from Ukraine a year ago. Erdogan has repeatedly warned that the instability could have regional repercussions.
    But Turkey has deepening trade ties with Russia and has been reluctant to openly criticize Moscow's actions in Ukraine. Erdogan spoke by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin this week, discussing energy deals and the Ukraine crisis.
    Russian gas exporter Gazprom said in January it planned to build an undersea gas pipeline via the Turkish-Greek border -- a project informally known as "Turkish Stream" -- as it seeks to supply Europe while by-passing Ukraine.
    Ukrainian officials had been expected to seek assurances from Erdogan and Energy Minister Taner Yildiz during their trip that those ties will not harm Ukrainian interests.
    Asked at the press conference about the Turkish Stream project, Erdogan gave no new details, saying simply that Turkey found the Russian proposal "reasonable" and that Russia remained its biggest natural gas supplier.
    A senior Turkish official said ahead of the visit that Ukraine's ambition to build a liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant on the Black Sea coast would be on the agenda, but that Ankara still opposes the project on environmental grounds.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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