Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday backed India’s bid for a permanent membership at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). He said that the world is larger than the five countries of the US, UK, France, China and Russia that are currently the permanent members.
At the G20 Leaders’ Summit, Erodgan called India as Turkey’s greatest trade partner in South Asia, adding there is great potential for both the nations in the field of economy.
“A country like India being there on the UN Security Council, we would be proud. But as you know, the world is bigger than, larger than five,” he said at the Summit. He added that when he says the world is larger than the five nations, he means that its not only about the US, UK, France, China and Russia, but that the permanent members should work on a rotational system. “Right now, you have all these members, 195 countries, who are all members of the UN. So we should have a rotational mechanism where potentially each and every member, every one of those 195 countries can potentially become a member. That’s what we propose so they should be able to enjoy that,” he said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Erodgan’s bilateral meeting
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Erodgan had a bilateral meeting on Sunday on the sidelines of the G20 Summit. As per an official statement, the discussions between the two revolved around bilateral cooperation potential in areas like trade and investment, defence and security, civil aviation and shipping.
The statement added that Erodgan congratulated PM Modi on India’s G20 Presidency and thanked India for the prompt relief after Turkey was hit by multiple earthquakes in February this year.
Erdogan also expressed that he is not hopeless in the matter of bringing back the Black Sea Grain initiative into force and that it can restart in future. He added that any initiative to isolate Russia is bound to fail.
He also said that any step that could escalate the tensions in the Black Sea should be avoided. “In order to support the global food security, food supply security, we are going to bring together the Food Supply Security Study Group, both Russia, Ukraine, as well as the United Nations, and with our stakeholders coming from the international community, we are going to have continuous talks,” he said.