UPDATE - Turkish president meets EU leaders

ADDS MORE DETAIL ABOUT MEETINGS

By Hasan Esen and Ilkay Guder

BRUSSELS (AA) - President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday met EU Council President Donald Tusk and EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker in Brussels.

Erdogan held a closed-door meeting with Tusk and Juncker which was to focus on current Turkey-EU relations.

The three leaders agreed that the refugee deal between Turkey and the EU signed in March 2016 must be fully implemented. They also discussed Turkey-EU relations and counterterrorism.

In March 2016 Turkey and the EU signed a deal which aimed at discouraging irregular migration through the Aegean Sea by taking stricter measures against human traffickers and improving the conditions of the nearly three million Syrian refugees in Turkey.

That deal also allowed for the acceleration of Turkey’s EU membership bid and visa-free travel for Turkish nationals within the EU’s Schengen zone.

Later, the Turkish leader later met European Parliament President Antonio Tajani.

Earlier on Thursday, Erdogan had met French President Emmanuel Macron. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu also joined the closed-door-meeting, which lasted 45 minutes.

According to the presidential sources, Syria, Iraq and regional issues were discussed upon during the meeting. Cooperation in the fight against all kinds of terrorist groups, including Daesh and the PKK, was highlighted.

Ways to break the current stalemate in EU-Turkey relations were also among the top items during the meeting as was a commitment to increase bilateral trade to €20 billion ($22 billion).