British PM hopes to see Turkey as a reliable partner in EU

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Tuesday that he hoped to see Turkey as a reliable partner within the European Union (EU).

Speaking at a joint press conference with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in London, Brown said 2 million British tourists visited Turkey every year, the trade volume between the two countries reached 6 billion Pounds and almost 80,000 Turks currently lived in Britain. Commenting on Turkey’s EU bid, Brown said Turkey’s becoming a member would make the union stronger in the economic, cultural and political sense. Noting that Cyprus issue was discussed during his talks with Erdogan, Brown said parties should act bravely in order to reach an agreement in the island. Pointing to the remarkable progress made on the matter so far, Brown said everybody should continue to work together for peace, adding his country was always be ready to support the process. Brown also said that both Erdogan and himself expressed the “importance of solving Iran’s nuclear problem by diplomatic means” during their gathering.