‘Kashmir a bilateral issue with Pakistan’
India has tacitly rejected Turkey President Erdogan’s suggestion for a multilateral dialogue with Pakistan
India informed visiting President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday that a solution to the Kashmir issue can only be found through bilateral talks with Pakistan, tacitly rejecting his suggestion for multilateral dialogue on the matter.
The Kashmir issue has a “prominent dimension of crossborder terrorism” that needs to be stopped by “those who are perpetuating it”, external affairs ministry spokesperson Gopal Baglay said without naming Pakistan.
Erdogan and PM Narendra Modi had a “detailed discussion” on terrorism and the two leaders agreed there could be no justification for terrorism wherever it is committed. They also urged all countries to disrupt terrorism networks and financing and “stop cross-border movements of terrorists”, Baglay said.
The Turkish leader had ruffled feathers in Delhi by suggesting in an interview before his arrival in India that there should be a “multilateral dialogue” to find a solution to the Kashmir issue. The remarks were seen as a riposte to Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades’ call for India to help in the reunification of the part of his country that is controlled by Turkey.
“We are ready to address any issue between India and Pakistan bilaterally through peaceful means as has been stipulated in the Simla Agreement and Lahore Declaration.”
While presenting its views on terrorism and Kashmir to Erdogan, the Indian side made it clear that the whole of Jammu and Kashmir is an “integral part of India”.
The Turkish side raised its concerns about the Fethullah Terrorist Organisation linked to the Us-based preacher Muhammad Fethullah Gulen, who has been accused by Erdogan of instigating a failed coup last year. Turkey has been demanding that schools in India linked to Gulen should be shut down.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday called for more aggressive efforts to deepen economic ties between India and Turkey, saying the present level of commercial relations between the two countries are “not enough”.
PM Modi was speaking at an India-turkey business summit with Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is visiting New Delhi. India-turkey trade stands at $6.4 billion, which officials say is much below potential. Ankara wants a Free Trade Agreement and a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement to bridge the deficit with New Delhi.
With chances of Turkey becoming a European Union member diminishing, Ankara is actively looking to Asia in terms of economic development and security and India is seen as a major partner in this regard.
“As we strive to build stronger political ties, the time has come to also make more aggressive effort to deepen the economic relations,” Modi said.
Presenting India as an economy, which is the “fastest growing” and therefore a “promising” destination for investment and doing business, the Prime Minister said the government’s focus apart from maintaining this pace, is also to remove inefficiencies from the system.
India has been wooing nations to invest more by easing the norms of doing business and promising to make the environment more conducive to trade. “Today’s knowledge-based global economy is continuously opening new areas. We must factor this in our economic and commercial interactions,” Modi said. The PM also gave the visiting dignitary an overview of the administrative reforms aimed at giving the economy a fillip.
“We have planned to build 50 million houses by 2022. For this, we have repeatedly refined our FDI policy in construction sector …We are putting up new ports and modernising the old ones through an ambitious plan called Sagarmala,” he said.
He referred to the areas of possible cooperation and said the hydrocarbon sector is a common area of interest for both countries and spoke of possible coordination in the solar and wind energy sectors.