India-Turkey relation:Turkey and India relations have now reached a very bad state. The Turkish government has imposed a blanket ban on exporting military equipment to India, one of the world's largest arms importers. This move has been taken a few months after New Delhi canceled a contract with a Turkish firm involved in a shipbuilding project in an Indian shipyard. The Turkish government has not made any major announcement in this regard, rather this decision has been taken in a closed-door meeting in the Turkish Parliament.
Mustafa Murat Sheker, vice president of Turkey's top arms procurement body, the Defence Industry Agency (SSB), inadvertently revealed the government's secret policy with regard to India, according to decisions taken at a meeting of the Foreign Affairs Committee on July 10, 2024. In April this year, New Delhi cancelled a contract with a Turkish firm involved in a shipbuilding project in India.
India had cancelled the agreement
India's Hindustan Shipyard Limited (HSL) has terminated all contracts with Turkish firms to build a fleet of five auxiliary ships for the Indian Navy and decided to go ahead with the construction on its own. The project is estimated to cost between US$1.5 billion and US$2 billion.
Why are both countries going against each other?
According to the report, however, there is nothing surprising in this because both the countries seem to be standing against each other on the geopolitical front. Turkey is a close country of Pakistan and it constantly gives anti-India statements. Due to this, India has also decided to go against Turkey. India also repeatedly raises the dispute related to Turkey's enemy country Greece. Relations between India and Turkey are getting sour because Turkey has refused to separate itself from Pakistan on the Kashmir issue. Since the removal of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir in 2019, Turkey has not missed any opportunity to raise this issue on the international platform.
PM Modi gave the message
According to the report, on the other hand, India has also gone against Turkey and worked with the leaders of Armenia, Cyprus and Greece. All these three countries are embroiled in many disputes with Turkey. In 2019, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was to visit Turkey and Saudi Arabia but at the last moment the visit to Turkey was cancelled and the Prime Minister visited only Saudi Arabia. With this, India had given a clear message to Turkey about its diplomatic priorities.
India replied to Turkey
According to media reports, after the ban on India, news has emerged that Ankara is in talks with Islamabad to become an official partner in the development of the 5th generation fighter jet KAAN. However, it is not yet clear when Pakistan will join it. Turkey has indicated that it will start talks with Pakistan on this matter as soon as possible. Turkey and Pakistan have supported Azerbaijan in the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. At the same time, India has responded by giving weapons to Armenia.
