Top EU officials to visit Turkey in early April

* Photo: Anadolu Agency (AA)

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President of European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and President of European Council Charles Michel will visit Turkey on April 6.

The visit of the top European Union (EU) officials has been announced by Michel's Spokesperson Barend Leyts on Twitter. Leyts has stated that von der Leyen and Michel will meet President and ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Next week Tuesday April 6 @eucopresident and president @vonderleyen will travel to Turkey for a meeting with president @RTErdogan

— Barend Leyts (@BarendLeyts) March 29, 2021

After last week's EU Council meeting which discussed the bloc's relations with Turkey, Michel said that they were in contact with the authorities in Turkey for a possible visit to the country in April 2021.

"We are ready, with the European Council, with member states, to put more concrete proposals on the table in order to have a more stable, more predictable relationship with Turkey," Michel said in a joint news conference with von der Leyen following a virtual EU leaders' summit.

The state-run Anadolu Agency (AA) says that during their visit to Turkey in early April, the top EU officials are expected to discuss new steps to revive EU-Turkey ties, by relaunching high-level political dialogue, starting negotiations on the modernization of the 25-year-old Customs Union, and by renewing the 2016 EU-Turkey refugee deal.

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(DŞ/SD)