NEW DELHI: India and Turkey yesterday decided to boost trade and energy cooperation and discussed ways to deal with global challenges like the deepening financial crisis and terrorism.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan held crucial talks with his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh in New Delhi after meeting with President Pratibha Patil and other Indian leaders.
“The discussions with Prime Minister Erdogan will contribute to the upgrading of our relations to a new level that befits the 21st century,” Singh said after the talks, adding the two sides had chalked out a “concrete action program.”
Erdogan is here a five-day visit to enhance bilateral ties. Addressing, after being accorded a ceremonial reception at Rashtrapati Bhawan yesterday morning, Erdogan said that relations between two countries have become “closer and deeper during the last five years” and they “aim to further their commercial and cultural ties.”
Later, while speaking at a Turkish-Indian Business Forum meeting, Erdogan called on Indian businessmen to make investments in Turkey. With its multi-cultural structure and a rapidly growing economy, “Turkey is the meeting point of different cultures and civilizations.”
Suggesting that India and Turkey can join hands to bail out small economies suffering from adverse impact of global recession and financial meltdown, Erdogan said: “This global financial crisis is not due to economic instability in one country or one region. The poor nations are likely to bear the burnt of this crisis. We need to rise up to the occasion. Now is the time for making more investments and creation of more jobs. We need to effectively regulate our economy and not go for protectionism. We also need to rely upon regional cooperation.”
Turkey can be a “bridge” between Europe and Asia, Union Minister for Science and Technology Kapil Sibal said at the business meet.
Singh said: “A strong and vibrant relationship with Turkey is in India’s national interest. This has been our guiding principle ever since the visit of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru to Turkey in 1960.”
He and Erdogan have decided to translate their “strong mutual desire for good relations and the vast good will that exists among our peoples into concrete action program,” Singh said.
