Indian Vice President Says Time To Bring Turkey, India Closer

[ROUDRAM]

[color=#000000][font=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][size=4][left]Indian Vice President Hamid Ansari has said the time is right for Turkey and India to seriously explore greater cooperation in a number of areas during his landmark six-day visit to Turkey, which started on Monday.[/left][/size][/font][/color]
[color=#000000][font=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][size=4][left]“[Turkey's] economy is doing very well. Our economy is doing very well. The time is right to take our relationship to the next level,” he said in response to Today's Zaman's questions. “I do not see any real reason why we cannot move forward in our bilateral relations,” he added.[/left][/size][/font][/color]
[color=#000000][font=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][size=4][left]Turkey became the world's fastest growing economy with 11 percent growth in the first quarter of this year and 8.8 percent growth in the second quarter, while India posted 7.7 percent growth in the three months from April to June, compared with the same period of 2010.[/left][/size][/font][/color]
[color=#000000][font=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][size=4][left]Stressing that unprecedented high-level exchanges between senior officials of the two countries in recent years have served to establish “familiarity with respect to each other,” Ansari said there are so many mutual interests that will benefit both countries. “[Turkey has] great expertise in the area of infrastructure, for example. Indian expertise in IT [information technologies] is well known. Is this being reflected in our bilateral relations? To some degree, yes, but not to a large extent,” he explained, noting that this is just one example of many areas of cooperation India and Turkey should explore further.[/left][/size][/font][/color]
[color=#000000][font=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][size=4][left]Industry analysts estimate that the Indian infrastructure sector will require at least $1 trillion worth of investment in the 2012-2017 period, especially in transportation infrastructure such as railway, highway and port facilities. India has an ambitious National Highways Development Program, under which it proposes to construct 7,000 kilometers of national highways every year for the next few years.[/left][/size][/font][/color]
[color=#000000][font=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][size=4][left]Turkey's construction and contracting industry is well-positioned to take advantage of India's needs, as Turkish companies are already number two, after China, on the list of the world's largest construction companies, according to a 2010 list from Engineering News Record (ENR), the international construction sector's leading magazine, based on the total value of projects undertaken in 2010. Turkish companies are very active in Russia, the Balkans, Arab countries and the Central Asian republics.[/left][/size][/font][/color]
[color=#000000][font=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][size=4][left]Ansari was accompanied by India's minister for social welfare and justice, Mukul Wasnik, a parliamentary delegation and a business delegation during his visit, which also took him to İstanbul and Konya. An honorary doctorate in international relations was conferred upon him by Mevlana University in Konya. On Tuesday, he met with President Abdullah Gül, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Parliament Speaker Cemil Çiçek and Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu.[/left][/size][/font][/color]
[color=#000000][font=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][size=4][left]Parliament Speaker Çiçek presented Ansari with a picture of Mukhtar Ahmed Ansari, his great-granduncle, discovered in the Turkish national achieves. M.A. Ansari was not only a key figure in India's history but also played a part in the history of the Republic of Turkey. In December 1912, Ansari led a medical mission to Turkey to provide medical and surgical aid to the Ottoman army fighting in the First Balkan War.[/left][/size][/font][/color]
[color=#000000][font=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][size=4][left]Indian officials told Today's Zaman that terrorism was among the issues discussed in the vice president's meeting with Turkish officials. As both countries suffer from terrorism, they said, Turkey and India expressed their commitment to work together on how to cope with the terrorism threat, be it on a bilateral level or in international forums. The two countries already have a joint working group to share information and strategies to address the issue of terrorism.[/left][/size][/font][/color]
[color=#000000][font=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][size=4][left]Both countries are also studying the possibility of a free trade agreement to bolster trade. A joint working group was established to make inquiries in that regard. The trade volume between Turkey and India was $2.3 billon in 2009, and jumped to $4 billion in 2010. In the last eight months of this year, the trade volume already exceeded the total figure of last year, posting $4.8 billion, an increase of 85 percent compared to the same period last year. The trade heavily favors India, with $4.2 billion in imports from India to Turkey and $533 million in exports to India from Turkey in the January-August period.[/left][/size][/font][/color]
[color=#000000][font=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][size=4][left]In the last few years, the frequency of senior-level contacts between India and Turkey has increased significantly, reflecting the presence of a mutual will to eventually fulfill the as yet unmet potential for bilateral cooperation. In February 2008, Turkey's then-foreign minister, Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan, paid an official visit to India, becoming the first Turkish foreign minister to visit the country in three decades. Babacan's visit was followed by Prime Minister Erdoğan's official visit to the southern tip of the Indian subcontinent in November 2008. In February 2010, President Gül went to India for a six-day “state visit” -- described as the highest level of state protocol -- making him the first Turkish president to visit the South Asian country in 15 years. The Indian vice president's visit marks the first high-level Indian delegation to visit Turkey since 2003, when then-Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee made a trip to Turkey.[/left][/size][/font][/color]

[Maximus]