Japan and Turkey began their first round of negotiations Monday for a bilateral free trade agreement, aiming to further strengthen economic cooperation.
The meeting, to be held over two days in Tokyo, follows an agreement reached in January between Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and then-Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, now Turkey's president, to launch FTA negotiations this year.
Japan wants to quickly seal an agreement with Turkey after the country signed a free trade deal with South Korea last year that could undermine Japan's competitiveness in exports.