July 12, 2006 - 19:52 AMT
UK Ready to Support Turkey's EU Bid
Newly appointed British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said on Tuesday that there are many European Union member states ready to do their best for Turkey to successfully proceed with its EU membership talks. Delivering a speech at Johns Hopkins University's Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington, D.C., Beckett evaluated debates about a possible "train crash," as put by European Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn, during Turkey's negotiations with the Union over the Cyprus stalemate. Underlining there can be a variety of problems for all candidate states during negotiations with the 25-nation bloc, Beckett said, "However there's no doubt that there's a tremendous goodwill among member states for talks with Turkey to lead to an agreement." "I hope there isn't a train crash during Turkey's negotiations with the EU over the Cyprus issue, or any other issue," said Beckett, assuring Ankara of the EU's goodwill for talks with Turkey and underlined that this isn't only Britain's position, reported The New Anatolian.