President Bashar al-Assad on Monday said the Syrian-Turkish relations have made remarkable progress and turned into a strategic partnership between the two countries, adding that the benefits of this partnership will not be restricted to both countries, but they will also include other countries, SANA reported.
"Those relations have expanded to include Jordan and Lebanon, and they will broaden to include more countries," the President said at a joint press conference with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
"In this framework, the meeting held in Lattakia a little over a week ago was very important and added much to this relation," President al-Assad added.
Presidents al-Assad and Erdogan expressed the readiness of Syria and Turkey to help in forming an Iraqi government capable of improving the internal situation, achieving national reconciliation and unity among all spectrums of the Iraqi people, and improves relations with neighboring countries.
President al-Assad expressed satisfaction over the level of Syrian-Turkish relations, noting that these relations achieve great progress by every meeting in comparison to the previous meeting.
He said that talks before the press conference focused on political issues only, and that an expanded meeting after the conference will deal with bilateral relations in the presence of Syrian and Turkish officials.
President al-Assad held talks on Monday with Premier Erdogan who arrived in Damascus for talks with the President on cooperation between Syria and Turkey and the latest regional developments.
President al-Assad visited Turkey last June and discussed with the Turkish President the situation in the region, with the two sides stressing the importance of continued consultation to enhance security and stability in the region.
Erdogan visited Syria in December 2009 and held talks with President al-Assad. He also chaired the Turkish side in the first meeting of the Syrian-Turkish High Level Strategic Cooperation Council during which 51 agreements, memos of understanding and work programs were signed on cooperation between the two countries in all areas.
The Syrian-Turkish High Level Strategic Cooperation Council held its second meeting this month in Lattakia and discussed cooperation in all fields.
Five documents were signed including a cooperation protocol on passengers and goods movement, a memo of understanding between the Turkish Development Bank and the State Planning Commission in Syria and three executive programs in the agricultural field.