Turkey to continue working with Indonesia on rebuilding Gaza: Turkish president

Ankara, April 11 (IANS) Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Turkey will continue working with Indonesia on rebuilding Gaza and defending the Palestinian cause, according to a statement released by the Turkish Presidency.

"We appreciate Indonesia's stance on the Palestinian issue. In the forthcoming period, we will continue working with Indonesia to rebuild Gaza and advocate for the Palestinian cause," Erdogan said on Thursday during a joint press conference with his visiting Indonesian counterpart Prabowo Subianto, following a meeting between the two leaders.

Regarding bilateral ties, Erdogan said the two sides "agreed to launch new initiatives concerning our cooperation in areas extending from defense industry and construction to healthcare, energy, and food industry."

He said both sides also discussed the potential steps to boost bilateral trade to their shared target of 10 billion US dollars "in a balanced manner, based on mutual benefit," adding that they have signed several documents on culture, disaster and emergency management, and communication, Xinhua news agency reported.

"We remain in cooperation with Indonesia in all international platforms," Erdogan said.

Apart from the bilateral meeting, Subianto also addressed the Turkish parliament earlier in the day, according to a press release by Indonesia's Cabinet Secretariat.

In his speech, Subianto elaborated on the "long history of solidarity" between Turkey and Indonesia, and voiced Indonesia's willingness to work with Turkey to defend the Palestinian people against the Israeli attacks, and address the human rights violations in Gaza, the press release showed.

According to a report by Turkey's state-run Anadolu Agency, Prabowo will attend the upcoming Antalya Diplomacy Forum scheduled from Friday to Sunday in the Turkish city of Antalya.

--IANS

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