The tension between India and Turkiye over the strong relations between Islamabad and Ankara was dismissed by the Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, who said that bilateral relations between Ankara and Islamabad shouldn’t be seen as a threat or an act of hostility from any third country, including India.
While attempting to clarify the nature of Turkiye’s relationship with Pakistan, Fidan was not afraid to point out what he called shortcomings in India’s overall foreign policy stance in his lecture at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in Singapore.
He emphasised that Ankara is not targeting any other country and has no adverse intentions towards New Delhi in its relations with Islamabad.
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Fidan took it a step further by raising the question as to the rationale behind India’s concerns at all, since why should any country consider friendly relations between two sovereign countries to be a reason for opposition or alarm.
He further emphasised that Turkiye is not the only country with strong and good relations with Pakistan and there are several other countries which have warm relations with Islamabad and India’s emphasis on Turkey’s partnership seems to be selective according to him.
His comments come at a time when the South Asian and regional geopolitical dynamics are highly sensitive as the Pakistan-Turkiye relationship is continuously being watched and analysed in the light of the geopolitical alignment.
The deliberate attempt to reinterpret the situation in Fidan’s comments was such that Turkey is not seen as a party taking sides but as a government acting in its own sovereign right to pursue bilateral partnerships, without allowing the choices to be misjudged or wrongly interpreted.
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