Turkey confirms its support to India's bid for NSG, MTCR

New Delhi, Aug. 19 (ANI): Turkey on Friday confirmed its support to India's application for the membership of the National Security Guard (NSG) and the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), said sources. On the multilateral front both nations stressed on the need for reform in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and her Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu held talks on entire gamut of bilateral relationships and important global and regional issues of mutual interests. Their discussions also focussed on review of bilateral relations and plan for exchange of visits. Both leaders also discussed the terrorist attacks and internal developments in Turkey, including the recent coup attempt, said sources, adding that in this context, the Turkish side briefed about the role of Fethullah Gulen-led organisation (FETO) in the attempted coup. On the economic front, priority was given to convening the next session of the Joint Economic Commission (JEC), which has been a very useful bilateral mechanism to discuss ways for increasing the bilateral trade and economic cooperation. The annual bilateral trade between the two countries was $ 6.3 billion last year. Other areas of bilateral interests were cooperation in the fields of culture, education, energy, tourism etc. There is an existing Cultural Exchange Programme. Discussions are currently on for concluding an Educational Exchange Programme. The tourism sector offers immense untapped potential. The two ministers exchanged views on the regional developments, particularly in West Asia, where the security situation has become alarming from the perspective of both the countries. They also finalised a roadmap for cooperation between the two countries in a wide variety of fields in the coming years, said sources, adding that the roadmap proposes regular exchanges between the two countries at the political and official level to discuss bilateral matters as well as important global and regional issues of mutual concern. Cooperation for building closer economic ties through Joint Committee Meetings, Joint Working Groups, closer cooperation between business and industry associations and participation in trade fair and road shows is envisaged. The roadmap also proposes cooperation between think tanks and training institutes. The two sides agreed to continue the productive high-level exchanges. Cavusoglu also called on Vice President M. Hamid Ansari. (ANI)