Turkey’s President Brings Up Kashmir Issue At UN General Assembly

Recep Tayyip Erdogan

At the high-level 78th session of the UN General Assembly session, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan tackled the Kashmir issue during his address to world leaders.

“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”, President Erdogan stated in his address to the General Debate on Tuesday.

President Erdogan went on to say, “As Turkiye, we will continue to support the steps to be taken in this direction”.

His remarks came just weeks after he met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in New Delhi, where they discussed strengthening trade and infrastructure partnerships.

Erdogan expressed delight in India’s participation in the United Nations Security Council. He advocated for the UN Security Council to include five permanent members and 15 temporary members.

“Those 20 (5+15) should be permanent members of the UNSC in rotation. But as you know, the world is bigger than five. When we say the world is larger than five, what we mean is that it’s not only about the US, UK, France, China and Russia”, Erdogan explained.

In recent years, Turkish President Erdogan has mentioned Kashmir in his address to world leaders at the high-level UN General Assembly session. During his address to world leaders at the high-level UN General Assembly session last year, Erdogan raised the issue of Kashmir.

Furthermore, Erdogan stated, “India and Pakistan, after having established their sovereignty and independence 75 years ago, still haven’t established peace and solidarity between one another”.

“This is very unfortunate. We hope and pray that a fair and permanent peace and prosperity will be established in Kashmir”, Erdogan added.

Erdogan made an allusion to Jammu and Kashmir in his pre-recorded video presentation to the General Debate in 2020. India called it completely unacceptable at the time, saying Turkey should learn to respect the sovereignty of other nations and think more carefully about its own policies.

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Spriha Rai