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The Netherlands and Turkey enhance their cooperation

Foreign minister Maxime Verhagen and his Turkish counterpart Ali Babacan signed an agreement aimed at strengthening official, business and cultural contacts between the Netherlands and Turkey.

The signing of the agreement marked the start of a conference at which Dutch and Turkish civil servants will be discussing cooperation in the areas of transport, justice and climate change.

The ministers discussed several topics, including Turkey's possible accession to the European Union.

'Strict but fair', was Verhagen's description of the Netherlands' position. 'If Turkey meets the accession criteria, we believe that the EU should fulfil its commitments.'

Mr Verhagen said that the Netherlands' would be happy to assist Turkey with the reform process in areas such as democratisation, legal certainty and human rights.

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