Conference on the US Presidental Election organized jointly by TÜSİAD and the Brookings Institute

Within the frame of their “Turkey Program” functioning since 2007, and Brookings Institute organized a joint conference titled “US Presidential Election – Impact on Turkey and the Region” on October 15th, 2012, at The Marmara Hotel in Istanbul. Ms. Ümit Boyner, President of the Board of Directors of TÜSİAD made the opening speech of the conference

Ms. Ümit Boyner, President of the Board of Directors of TÜSİAD expressed her views as follows “No matter which candidate wins, we must look forward to a more comprehensive relationship. This will indeed necessitate a thorough and frank assessment of our interests. We must re-define the framework of our common interests, devise the new approaches and be respectful of diverging viewpoints.”

Ms. Boyner remarked that there is a deep founded relationship between the US and Turkey since the 19. Century and said:

“Although the strength of our bilateral cooperation has been tested in a number of cases, like the war in Iraq, the crisis of the Flotilla, the developments in Iran, and the Syrian problem, both countries have had a long standing partnership and they share common strategic priorities in our region. We can say that we share a common stance on promoting peace and democratic stability in the Middle East, particularly in the civil-war-like situation in Syria. We share a common stance on contributing to the stability, democracy and the prosperity of the Black Sea Region, the Caucasus, Central Asia and Afghanistan, achieving comprehensive and mutual acceptable agreement on Cyprus, on countering terrorism, including the fight against the terrorist organizations, on increasing understanding, respect and tolerance between and among different cultures, and on strengthening transatlantic alliance on every front.”

“Even though increasing investment and trade volumes in a relatively short period of time is not an easy task to achieve, proposals and approaches should go beyond some everlasting items, such as qualified industrial zones or generalized system of preferences. (…) That is the reason why we strongly support the work of U.S.-Turkey framework for strategic, economic and commercial cooperation,” said Ms. Boyner, reminding that TÜSİAD, as a business association, attach particular significance to the economic dimension of Turkish-American relations.

The conference included a panel discussion moderated by Mr. Volkan Vural, Member of the Board of Directors of TÜSİAD and President of TUSIAD’s Platform of International Politics. Ambassador Richard Burt, Dr. Michael O’Hanlon, Director of Research for Foreign Policy at the Brookings Institution, Mr. Cengiz Candar from the Radikal Daily and Mr. Soli Ozel, from the Istanbul Kadir Has University participated to the panel discussion as speakers.