ANKARA, December 8. /TASS/. Turkey and Hungary are in talks on joint defense projects in the name of European security, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said after talks with visiting Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
"We have decided to use the existing economic and trade mechanisms maximally effectively. We also see the positive influence of our strategic partnership, which is realized via concrete projects in the defense sector, on trade and investments. Amid the changing security situation in Europe, we are considering potential prospects for the implementation of joint production projects, which will bring our defense cooperation up to a higher level," he said.
Touching on trade and economic relations between Turkey and Hungary, Erdogan stated that the two countries "are close to reaching their trade target of $6 billion." "Bearing in mind the impressive trade potential between our countries, we agreed to adjust this target to bring it up to $10 billion," he said.
Erdogan and Orban held a meeting of the Turkish-Hungarian high-level strategic cooperation council, which yielded 15 agreements and memorandums of cooperation in the areas of energy, industry, trade, transport, culture, and education.