Turkey, Azerbaijan trade deal ready, says trade minister

A preferential trade agreement between Turkey and Azerbaijan will be signed shortly, the Turkish trade minister said Thursday.

"The deal will be signed during the Strategic Cooperation Council meeting in the presence of both presidents," Ruhsar Pekcan said during her visit to Baku.

The scope of the agreement will be widened to pave the way for businesspeople, she added.

Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev expressed the desire to boost Azerbaijani investments in Turkey in a meeting, Pekcan said.

She reiterated that both sides will work on eliminating the roadblocks to increase investments and trade.

"At a time when trade wars dominate the world, we must take steps to unleash our own potential," Pekcan noted.

She stressed that the two countries will also focus on liberalization of transportation and more efficient use of Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway (BTK).

Linking Turkey, Azerbaijan and Georgia, the 826-kilometer (513-mile) BTK railway project started operations in 2017.

In turn, her Azerbaijani counterpart Mikayil Jabbarov said the two countries are determined to achieve a trade volume of $15 billion.

"We are deepening economic reforms and ready to back Turkish businesspeople," he said.