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"The British Minister for Defence, Liam Fox has recently been paying a visit to Turkey to meet with Vecdi Gonul, the Minister for Defence in Turkey. They met to discuss military cooperation between the two countries and to the defence industry.
Liam Fox described Turkey as a friend, ally and partner of Britain, and said the UK would continue to support Turkey's bid for European Union membership. In addition economic ties between the countries are expected to deepen with trade volume increasing to $20 billion.
It's certainly nice to know that Turkey regards Britain as an ally as it has recently agreed with Iran to develop several small gas fields. The plan is for the proposal to be given to private companies who would need to invest up to $2 million into the project. The original idea had been for Turkey to develop three large gas fields but these plans had to be dropped apparently due to technical grounds.
Turkey has rejected the idea that these plans were dropped due to international pressure on Iran over its nuclear activities, and has stated that it will abide by current UN sanctions but will not follow tougher measures which have been imposed by the European Union and the United States. The Turkish energy Minister Taner Yildiz has already said that current sanctions will not hinder cooperation on energy projects.
It signed a preliminary deal with Iran in 2007 which allowed the possibility of carrying gas from Iran through Turkey and into Europe. This deal has greatly displeased the United States who would prefer it if Turkey did not deal with Iran.
