Hamid Ansari to visit Turkey to strengthen trade and commerce ties

[RedBeard]

Published Saturday Oct 8 2011 22 06 IST | Updated Sunday Oct 9 2011 0 55 IST By DNA Correspondent | Place New Delhi | Agency DNA



Vice President Hamid Ansari will be undertaking a six-day bilateral visit to Turkey starting from Monday that will further strengthen trade and commerce ties between the two countries.

Ansari will be accompanied by a delegation of Indian businessmen, and will participate in a Business Forum at the Turkish Chamber of Businessmen and Industrialists, Istanbul. This will be the first high level delegation to visit Turkey after then prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s visit to that country in 2003.

Ansari will meet Turkish president Abdullah Gul and hold discussions with prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He will also hold delegation level talks with members of the Turkish Grand National Assembly, led by its speaker Camil Cicek.

Ansari will also be accompanied by minister for social welfare and justice, Mukul Wasnik, senior CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury and MPs Ranjitsingh Vijaysinh Patil, Vijay Pal Singh and Imgrid McLeod.

At a media briefing Secretary (West), Ministry of External Affairs, Madhusudan Ganpathi said whole gamut of regional and international issues will be discussed during the visit. India, he said, which will strengthen cooperation in IT, automobiles, engineering and infrastructure sectors.

For Ansari, the visit will have an added personal resonance as his great grand uncle, M.A. Ansari, had led a medical mission to Turkey in 1912 to provide aid to the Turkish army in the Balkan War.

Meanwhile, India offered an additional soft loan of US $35 million for developmental projects to the Union of Comoros. This is in addition to the earlier offer of US $ 41.6 Million for an 18 MW power project in Moroni, a Ministry of External Affairs statement said on Saturday.

“Additional secretary (Africa) Gurjit Singh paid an official visit to the Union of Comoros from October 4 to 6. This was the first visit by an Indian official to Comoros and came after the enhanced cooperation with Africa announced at the 2nd India-Africa Forum Summit (IAFS) in May 2011,” MEA said.

During his visit, ASA called on president Dr Ikililou Dhoinine and other leaders. “India has also offered to set up a Vocational Training Centre in Moroni to impart skills in plumbing, welding, electrical, civil works and IT to Comorians as soon as a site was finalized. In response to a Comorian request for support in solar energy he expressed India’s readiness to train Comorian women in the field of solar engineering in the Barefoot College of India under ITEC,” MEA said.

“President Dhoinine expressed his deep appreciation of India’s assistance for the development of Comoros,” MEA said.


Hamid Ansari to visit Turkey to strengthen trade and commerce ties - India - DNA

 

[pmukherjee]

Yes, Turkey is very important to India. When will the PM be visiting Turkey? Soon, I hope. He will be going to Iran now. the dates are yet to be finalised. A visit by the Vice President is a precursor to a state visit by the President/Prime Minister. I hope India and Turkey develop good and stable relations. We can gain much from Turkey.

 

[Quasar]

six day!? it tells a lot

 

[eiffe]

This is excellent news for India. Turkey is a powerful country and it is in our interest to have friendly relations with
them. Its so good to know that both countries are enhancing bilateral ties in recent years.

May this friendship between Turkey & India continue to grow more and more.

 

[RedBeard]

Bilateral ties must grow, both countries will benefit!

 

[RedBeard]

Turkey hosts Indian Vice President Hamid Ansari


10 October 2011, Monday / TODAY’S ZAMAN, ANKARA

Indian Vice President Hamid Ansari arrived in Ankara on Monday for a six-day visit in a landmark sign of the expanding relationship between Turkey and India.

The minister for social welfare and justice, Mukul Wasnik, a parliamentary delegation and a business delegation are accompanying Ansari during his visit which will also take him to İstanbul and Konya, according to Indian news reports.

While in Turkey, Ansari will hold separate meetings with President Abdullah Gül, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Parliament Speaker Cemil Çiçek.

“The vice president’s visit will provide additional impetus and momentum towards further consolidation and strengthening of the broad-based, multifaceted and comprehensive partnership between India and Turkey in areas of mutual interest to mutual benefit. This would also reinforce the close traditional and historical friendship between both countries,” officials from the Indian Ministry of External Affairs were quoted as saying by the Indian media. “India’s relations with Turkey have a historical bearing. The links between both countries are civilizational, encompassing architecture, arts, language and cuisine. Both countries understand each other well, drawing their inspiration from their historical connections and the long association between the leaders and the peoples of the two countries,” the officials said.

Vice President Ansari, a Muslim, is the grandson of a brother of Mukhtar Ahmed Ansari, who is not only a key figure in India’s history but also played a part in the history of the Republic of Turkey. M.A. Ansari (1880-1936), a medical doctor, was a former president of India. 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. Historians say that although the mission was organized by Muslim leaders, it paved the way for the Indian national leaders to put India on the world map by advocating and fostering international understanding.



Turkey hosts Indian Vice President Hamid Ansari

 

[RedBeard]

Davutoğlu holds talks with Indian Vice President


11 October 2011, Tuesday / TODAYSZAMAN.COM,


Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has held talks with Indian Vice President Hamid Ansari to discuss bilateral relations and regional developments.

Diplomatic sources said both officials discussed bilateral relations and ways to improve the ties between the two nations.

State-run Anatolia news agency reported on Tuesday that Davutoğlu and Ansari discussed Iraq and Davutoğlu briefed the Indian vice president on the latest situation of Turkish-Iraqi relations.

Sources said Ansari and Davutoğlu also discussed violence in Syria and unrest in the Middle East, along with possible cooperation between India and Turkey over energy.


Davuto

 

[RedBeard]

Indian vice president says time is right to bring Turkey and India closer


12 October 2011, Wednesday / ABDULLAH BOZKURT, ANKARA

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.




“[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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.



Indian vice president says time is right to bring Turkey and India closer