India-Turkey: Time to translate commonalities into closer bilateral ties

In the last few years, the frequency of senior-level contacts between the two distant countries become considerably higher, reflecting the presence of a mutual will to eventually meet that 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, during which he sought ways to improve economic ties, was followed by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s official visit to the southern tip of the Indian subcontinent in November 2008.

‘I think this frequency of visits underscores the point that there is an understanding in both countries that the two are natural partners. It is time to translate these commonalities into closer bilateral relations -- economically, commercially, etc. Look at this visit in this context,’ says Indian Ambassador to Turkey Raminder Singh Jassal

On Sunday President Abdullah Gül departed for 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.

Also over the last few years, parliamentary and ministerial delegations from India have paid frequent visits to Ankara, in addition to a visit to Turkey by India’s national security advisor in 2008 and a visit to India by Turkey’s chief of naval forces, also in 2008. Later this month, Turkish Defense Minister Vecdi Gönül will visit India for a defense exhibition and bilateral talks.

“The important thing is that the frequency of contacts has become higher. I think there is an increasing recognition on both sides, in India and Turkey, that these two countries are natural partners because we have a lot in common: Both are ancient civilizations; modern democracies; both are developing their economies quite well; both countries have multicultural, multiethnic, multi-religious societies; and both are members of the G-20. So there is a lot in common between India and Turkey, and I keep telling my Turkish friends that when you look at our part of the world, the Indian subcontinent, you’ll find that India is the natural partner,” Indian Ambassador Raminder Singh Jassal, representing his country in Turkey since November 2008, said in an interview with Today’s Zaman.

“I think this frequency of visits underscores this point that there is a place and condition in both countries that the two countries are natural partners. It is time to translate these commonalities into closer bilateral relations -- economically, commercially, etc. Look at this visit in this context,” Jassal said in the interview held ahead of Gül’s ongoing visit.

In New Delhi, a statement released by the Central Statistical Organization on Monday said India’s economic growth may accelerate this year for the first time since 2007. According to the organization, Asia’s third-largest economy will probably expand 7.2 percent in the fiscal year ending March 31 from a year earlier after growing 6.7 percent in the previous 12 months.

“This visit will give a fillip to trade and investment. In 2008, India and Turkey touched the $3 billion figure in their trade volume. This is not very high considering the size of the economies of the two countries, but the increase was important because it had doubled in three years. In 2009, because of the economic crisis in the world, trade went down a little. And we hope it will now pick up again and that we will reach the target of hopefully $6 billion in the near future, which is what Prime Minister Erdoğan and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had agreed upon during the former’s visit, doubling it. The trend has for the last three months already been going up,” Jassal said, reflecting his optimism over the future of economic and commercial ties between his country and Turkey.

“India will invest more than $500 billion in the next few years in infrastructure, and Turkish companies have a very good reputation in construction. So for them the opportunities are immense. I see that the economic and commercial aspect of this relationship will be one of the strongest points during President Gül’s visit to India and in the India-Turkey relationship.”

A remarkable achievement worth noting is a joint study group between India and Turkey which was established following Erdoğan’s visit to New Delhi and which is continuing work for laying the foundation for a free trade agreement (FTA) between the two countries.

“Turkey has a customs union with the European Union, and India is in the process of negotiating an FTA with the EU. So this makes sense and we are working towards it,” Jassal said.

‘Too large to be offended’

Late last month, ahead of an international conference on Afghanistan in London, the Afghan and Pakistani presidents and senior diplomats and ministers from the UK, the US, Iran, Tajikistan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Russia and several representatives from international agencies gathered together for the İstanbul Summit on Friendship and Cooperation in the Heart of Asia, hosted by Gül.

Indian officials conveyed their disappointment at the time to Turkish officials over the fact that they were not invited to the regional conference, while reliable sources speaking with Today’s Zaman said the reason for India’s absence at the conference stemmed from Pakistan’s objection conveyed to the Turkish side.

“India is a too large a country to feel offended,” Jassal replied when asked whether India felt offended for not being invited.

“We have been involved in Afghanistan ever since the Bonn process and before because we have a historical affinity with Afghanistan, and our commitment is not going to go down. We’ll continue to work toward peace and stability in Afghanistan and hope that the country will become a factor of stability in the whole region,” Jassal added.

While noting that he expected joint counterterrorism efforts to be high on the agenda of Gül’s visit to India, Jassal underlined that both India and Pakistan have been committed to resolving their disagreements through bilateral dialogue, in line with the 1972 Simla Agreement between the two countries.

“We don’t see the need for a third party because we believe in bilateralism in our dialogue with Pakistan. Third parties tend to bring some different agenda. So both countries are committed to bilateral dialogue,” Jassal said.

As of Monday, a news report posted from New Delhi underpinned the ambassador’s remarks. Citing anonymous officials, The Times of India reported that India has proposed Feb. 18 or Feb. 25 for talks with Pakistan as the rivals edge toward resuming a peace process stalled by the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attack.

After India offered talks between the neighbors’ foreign secretaries, Pakistan is keen to resume the so-called “composite dialogue” that included the divided Himalayan territory of Kashmir, terrorism and economic and commercial cooperation, the newspaper said. Pakistan’s government has yet to formally respond to the offer, the report said.

“Pakistan is our neighbor, and as one of our leaders has said, you can choose your friends but you can’t choose your neighbors; so we are destined to live together, side-by-side. We are open to dialogue with Pakistan on all issues,” Jassal said.

Why not a book on India by Pamuk?

A guest at the Indian Embassy residence in Ankara would find on a table in the hall several issues of the journal “Hu, The Sufi Way.” Its second issue, released in October 2008, was dedicated to 13th century Sufi saint Mevlana Jelaluddin Rumi.

“There is so much cultural overlap, it is important to bring this message to the peoples of both countries. Mevlana Jelaluddin Rumi is from Balkh [an province in Afghanistan] who came and settled here [in Turkey]. But his message of convention and tolerance and his poem, ‘Come, whoever you are,’ has a strong resonance in India because India has had a strong Sufi tradition. And, of course, India is also the second-largest Muslim country in the world after Indonesia. We are blessed to have so many communities, cultures and languages coexisting with each together. All this is a good foundation for people-to-people contact,” Indian Ambassador to Turkey Raminder Singh Jassal said in an interview with Today’s Zaman. “There are thousands of common words in our languages; for example, kitap [book], dünya [world], şehir [city], nehir [river] and even terzi [tailor]. There is hardly a sentence where you will not find some common words. There is also a cultural thing because we have been influenced by Turkic civilization for centuries. And in the 15th and 16th centuries, there are recorded exchanges of emissaries between the Ottomans and the Indian emperors,” Jassal explained, while noting how his close friend, renowned filmmaker and painter Muzaffar Ali, himself a keen Rumi enthusiast, wants to make a film on Mevlana one day.

In a recent interview with Indian media during his second visit to India in less than a year, Turkey’s Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk admitted that the famous Indian author, Booker Prize winner Kiran Desai, is his girlfriend. “She is a very intelligent and beautiful person and a great writer. India should be proud of her,” Pamuk was quoted as saying late last month.

“Interaction between cultural personalities, writers and all, is part of a relationship,” Jassal said, recalling how Ali passionately wants to make a film on Mevlana.

“All these things and then Pamuk’s interest in India, all of these are bridges. And the more bridges you build, the closer the relationship will become because people will come to know each other. I hope that one day Pamuk will write something which also involves India,” Jassal added. Ankara Today’s Zaman