Turkey eyes closer ties with Norwegian parliament

By Muhammet Emin Avundukluoglu

ANKARA (AA) - The head of the Turkish Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee said on Thursday that they would try to build closer parliamentary relations with Norway.

Meeting with his Norwegian counterpart Anniken Huitfeldt in the Turkish capital Ankara, Volkan Bozkir said that they exchanged views on bilateral relations as well as developments in the EU.

Bozkir underlined the “friendly relations” between the two NATO allies and expressed hope that parliamentary ties between them would “continue”.

For her part, Huitfeldt stressed that Turkey and Norway represented the southern and northern “wings” of the alliance.

"We are in agreement with Turkey on some issues and we are not on others. However, the important thing is that we have the opportunity to discuss them clearly," she said.

Fielding the second largest army in NATO after the U.S., Turkey has been a member of the alliance since 1952 while Norway is a founding member of the alliance.