Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan met in Ankara with his Spanish counterpart Jose Manuel Albarez.

In a joint interview given by the two ministers after their meeting at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Hakan Fidan mentioned that Spain was among the countries that sincerely supported the process of Turkey’s accession to the European Union from the beginning and expressed once again that the EU membership is still a strategic goal for Turkey. “I reiterated that Turkey’s EU accession process is too important to give way to the evil political agenda of some countries,” he said.

Hakan Fidan pointed out that the European Union, as a collective political entity of European countries, expresses its own positions, however, Turkey develops relations separately, one by one, with European countries and maintains a different institutional relationship with the European Union. The relations that Turkey develops directly with many European countries can be easier, the Turkish minister said, while on the contrary when developing relations with the EU, there are decisions that must be made unanimously within the Union. He argued that this situation can often work against Ankara.

He also recalled that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reiterated after his re-election in 2023 that Ankara’s perspective on EU membership has not changed and that Turkey’s strategic intentions and vision remain the same.

The Turkish minister reminded that there is an open EU accession process and stressed that political will must be demonstrated before that. As he said, the key countries of the EU are those from which Turkey expects a declaration of will on this matter, and he noted that these countries should make such a declaration.

Recalling that such a political will was formulated in 2004-2005, Hakan Fidan added: “Later we saw that this political will eroded and gradually disappeared and that a completely different political perception and climate towards Turkey prevails in the European Union.”

Among the areas that need to be improved in favor of both sides in Turkey’s relations with the EU, Hakan Fidan listed the updating of the Customs Union, the relaxation of the visa regime for Turkish citizens traveling to the EU, trade privileges and the issue of tackling irregular immigration.

The Spanish minister responded that his country has been in favor of the development and strengthening of Brussels’ dialogue with Turkey and pointed out that the EU countries should work on this issue. He emphasized that Spain’s desire is not to stop this dynamic and asked Turkey to continue to consider its “future in Europe”.

Hakan Fidan also mentioned that Spain is one of Turkey’s biggest trading partners in the EU and that the target for annual trade volume with Spain is 20 billion dollars and it seems that this target was almost reached last year as it exceeded 19 billion dollars. More than 700 companies based in Spain have a presence in Turkey.

The Turkish minister particularly emphasized that “we want to promote our cooperation in the defense industry with specific projects”. Spain cooperates in this field with Turkey and has contributed to the construction of the Turkish mini-aircraft carrier/amphibious operations ship “Anadolu”, while President Erdogan has announced that his country intends to build a larger aircraft carrier and for this purpose is in negotiations with the Spain. After all, “Spain has deployed Patriot arrays (including the anti-aircraft system) in Adana since 2015”.

Regarding the war in Gaza, Hakan Fidan stated that Turkey continues to press in all fora, unilaterally or collectively, for measures that can be taken to put pressure on Israel. He also stated that he supports Spain in the initiatives it has undertaken in this matter and noted that the organization of a peace conference, the recognition of the Palestinian state and the implementation of security guarantees are very important alternative proposals in the direction of the solution, stressing that Turkey has also submit proposals.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Spain, Jose Manuel Albarez, responded for his part that Spain has a proposal to organize a peace conference on the Palestinian issue. “At the peace conference we can all come together, recognize the Palestinian state and Israel give us the security guarantee,” he said.

Albares recalled that Spain “condemns the attacks” of Hamas and emphasized that many Palestinians have lost their lives due to bombs and hunger. “We do not want to witness this level of violence,” he noted, adding that the “diffusion of the conflict in Lebanon” also worried his country.

Finally, Hakan Fidan noted that Turkey and Spain are two important countries of the Mediterranean basin, adding that the region faces challenges such as conflicts, terrorism, climate change and irregular migration. “Turkey and Spain, located at the eastern and western ends of the Mediterranean, are experiencing these crises first hand. As two countries that have been fighting terrorism for years, we attach great importance to improving our security cooperation,” he said. He also assessed that Turkey and Spain’s potential for what they can do together, especially for regional and global security, has not been fully discussed and stated that this discussion should begin.

He pointed out that the events in the region in recent years have brought to the fore the security perspective of the relations between Turkey, the EU and NATO, noting that there are very serious issues that need to be discussed between Turkey and the European Union, both at the bilateral level as well as in the context of NATO.