Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will pay a two-day visit to India beginning April 30 during which the two countries will explore ways to strengthen anti-terror cooperation and deepen trade and investment ties. Erdogan’s the overnight visit will come barely days after a referendum in Turkey on April 16 on whether to change the country from a parliamentary democracy to an executive structure led by the president.
The Turkish president will hold talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on May 1 on key bilateral, regional and international issues of mutual interest. With Turkey being a member of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), the issue of India’s membership bid of the elite group is likely to figure during the talks between the two leaders.
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Turkey is not opposed to India’s NSG membership but has been maintaining that the powerful bloc should come out with a system to consider entry of the countries which are not signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), diplomatic sources said.
China has been opposing India’s membership of the NSG on the ground that it is not a signatory to the NPT. Enhancing anti-terror cooperation will be among the focus areas during Erdogan-Modi talks. After a failed coup in July last year to topple Erdogan, Turkey had blamed Fethullah Gulen Terrorist Organisation (FETO) for it and said the outfit has “infiltrated” India.
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Calling the FETO is “secretive transnational criminal network” with presence around the world, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, during a visit here last year, had said, “Unfortunately, the FETO has also infiltrated India through associations and schools.” Issues relating to regional security, the situation in the Middle East, particularly Syria, are likely to figure during talks between Modi and Erdogan.