Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday called for “dialogue and cooperation” between India and Pakistan to ensure peace in Kashmir.
He made the statement while addressing the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly.
“Another development that will pave the way for regional peace, stability and prosperity in South Asia will be the establishment of a just and lasting peace in Kashmir through dialogue and cooperation between India and Pakistan,” Erdogan said. “Turkey will continue to support the steps to be taken in this direction.”
The remarks come a week after Erdogan met India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in New Delhi.
This was not the first time Erdogan made a reference to Jammu and Kashmir before the United Nations.
In 2021, Erdogan said that India and Pakistan after having established their sovereignty and independence 75 years ago still have not established peace and solidarity with each other.
“This is much unfortunate,” he had said. “We hope and pray that a fair and permanent peace and prosperity will be established in Kashmir.”
Prior to that, in 2020, he had referred to Jammu and Kashmir as a “burning issue” and had emphasised that resolving it was important to the stability and peace of South Asia.
He had also referred to India abrogating Jammu and Kashmir’s special status under Article 370 of the Constitution, saying that it had “further complicated the problem”.
New Delhi had said that Erdogan’s comments were completely unacceptable and they constituted gross interference in India’s internal affairs.
“Turkey should learn to respect sovereignty of other nations and reflect on its own policies more deeply,” TS Tirumurti, then India’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, had said.
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