![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/taiwan_taipei.jpg\")
<\/p>\nBy Shih Hsiu-chuan \u00a0\/\u00a0 Staff Reporter<\/p>\n
Turkish Representative to Taiwan Muzaffer Eroktem said yesterday that Taiwan\u2019s plan to open a representative office in Istanbul would proceed without delay, but he didn\u2019t give a timeframe.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cThe matter is pending,\u201d the outgoing envoy told reporters in English on the sidelines of a ceremony at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to award him the Friendship Medal of Diplomacy in recognition of his contributions to strengthening bilateral ties.<\/p>\n
However, some processes still needed to be completed, he said, refusing to say if opposition from Beijing was behind delays in the plan. Taiwan made the proposal about a year ago.<\/p>\n
Erkotem \u2014 who has served in the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs for 45 years and whose first and last overseas postings were in Taiwan in 1970-1971 and from 2008 until now \u2014 said he would become a visiting academic.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am not going to \u2018retire.\u2019 After I return to Turkey, I will continue to follow subjects [that I did] not complete during my tenure in Taipei \u2026 on aspects of culture and tourism in particular,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Praising Eroktem as a \u201chighly skilled diplomat\u201d and \u201can old friend of ours,\u201d Minister of Foreign Affairs Timothy Yang (\u694a\u9032\u6dfb) said bilateral relations had \u201cbecome noticeably stronger\u201d since Eroktem returned to Taipei two years ago.<\/p>\n
Turkey is a key trading partner, with bilateral trade reaching US$960 million at the end of July, an increase of 62 percent compared with the same period last year, Yang said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe expect to set a new record this year,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Taiwan and Turkey also enjoy vibrant cultural exchanges, with both nations frequently inviting outstanding performers, groups and people to visit, Yang said.<\/p>\n
The significant increase in the number of Taiwanese visiting Turkey was another indication that Eroktem\u2019s efforts to promote his country has paid off, Yang said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Shih Hsiu-chuan \u00a0\/\u00a0 Staff Reporter Turkish Representative to Taiwan Muzaffer Eroktem said yesterday that Taiwan\u2019s plan to open a representative office in Istanbul would proceed without delay, but he didn\u2019t give a timeframe. \u201cThe matter is pending,\u201d the outgoing envoy told reporters in English on the sidelines of a ceremony at the Ministry of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":25054,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[89],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-turkey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25052"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25052\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}