01 May 2017•Update: 01 May 2017
By Enes Kaplan
NEW DELHI
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has begun a major two-day official visit to India by meeting the country’s leaders and laying a wreath to renowned Indian independence campaigner, Mahatma Gandhi.
Erdogan was welcomed to India by his counterpart Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the presidential palace in New Delhi with an official ceremony which included a traditional 21-gun salute.
Turkey’s president later laid a wreath at a monument to the memory of Mahatma Gandhi, the internationally renowned pacifist campaigner for Indian independence from the then British Empire.
The Turkish leader was accompanied by Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci, Energy Minister Berat Albayrak and Culture and Tourism Minister Nabi Avci as well as Chief of General Staff Hulusi Akar.
Erdogan's two-day visit is the first trip at the presidential level from Turkey to India in seven years.
Talks are expected to cover the fight against terrorism, efforts to boost bilateral ties, the prevention of Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) activity in India and New Delhi’s membership of the Nuclear Suppliers’ Group (NSG).
Erdogan’s visit is also expected to see the signing of a cultural exchange program between the two countries.
India -- which has the second-largest Muslim population in the world -- is a member of the G20 and is one of the so-called BRICS countries -- a group of five major emerging economies along with Brazil, Russia, China and South Africa.
