The scheduled meetings and contacts of the Deputy Minister for Economic Diplomacy and Outreach took place in a warm atmosphere Costas Fragogiannis during the two-day visit to Istanbul, February 1 and 2, 2024, accompanied by the General Secretary of International Economic Relations and President of Enterprise Greece Mairas Myrogianni.

The interest was intense of the business communities of Greece and Turkey to further develop their collaborations, following the B2B meetings they had in the context of the Business Forum hosted on Friday, February 2 at the facilities of the Council of External Economic Relations of Turkey (DEIK) in collaboration with Enterprise Greece.

The Forum was attended by approximately 100 Greek businessmen who traveled from Greece and others active in Turkey as well as approximately 200 Turkish businessmen from various sectors of the economy – food and beverage, construction, marine equipment, energy and renewable energy, high technology, tourism.

On the sidelines of the Business Forum, Mr. Fragogiannis had an informal meeting with the Turkish Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and his interlocutor on the issues of the Positive Agenda Burak Akcapar, with whom they discussed the next steps and renewed their appointment for April in Turkey. In fact, the two Deputy Ministers had the opportunity to have a short conversation with the heads of the Greece-Turkey Business Council under establishment, Giorgos Prokopiou and Adnan Polat respectively.

It is noted that the establishment of a Greek-Turkey Business Council is a separate topic of the Positive Agenda and is expected to play an active role in institutionalizing systematic and sector-specific bilateral business cooperation.

Upon his arrival in Istanbul, Foreign Minister Mr. Fragogiannis was received by the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew at the headquarters of the Patriarchate in Fanari, where they had the opportunity to discuss issues of concern to the Community of Constantinople.

On the morning of Friday, February 2, Mr. Fragogiannis co-chaired the work of the 6th Greece-Turkey Joint Economic Committee with the Deputy Minister of Trade of Turkey, Mustafa Tuzcu, and they co-signed the relevant Protocol. The Protocol sets the framework for bilateral cooperation on a range of issues in energy, environment, water management, land and air transport, industry, research and technology, agriculture, customs cooperation, tourism and social security.

The two Deputy Ministers also had an extensive bilateral meeting, during which they discussed in particular issues of transport, customs, trade, expressing the common will to implement a targeted action plan.

As part of the visit to Istanbul, Mr. Fragogiannis visited the offices of the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey, where he was given a presentation of Turkey’s industrial zones, spoke with members of the local academic community at an event at Kadir Has University while delivering a speech and to members of the Global Relations Forum (GRF) Think Tank, in an event co-organized with the Turkish industrialist association TUSIAD.

During his stay in Istanbul, the Deputy Minister had a meeting to get to know and work with Greek businessmen active in Turkey, while he sat at a dinner hosted in honor of the Greek delegation and business mission, and with the participation of Turkish businessmen, the Greek businessman of Byron Nikolaidis of Constantinople.

Finally, the Deputy Minister Mr. Fragogiannis had a short meeting at the Consulate General of Istanbul with the correspondents of the Greek media in Turkey and granted two interviews to the Turkish media, the Anadolu agency and the Hurriyet newspaper.

Concluding the visit, Mr. Fragogiannis expressed his satisfaction with the welcoming atmosphere encountered by the Greek business delegation in Istanbul and expressed his optimism for the positive prospects of bilateral economic and business cooperation.