By Ilkay Guder
ANKARA
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will pay official visits to five countries in the wake of Turkey’s historic referendum on a transition to a presidential system, according to a presidential source.
On April 30, Erdogan is scheduled to attend Turkey-India Business Forum in India. Erdogan will also meet his Indian counterpart Pranab Mukherjee, Vice President Hamid Ansari and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The issues pertaining to counter-terrorism, boosting economic and commercial cooperation, Fetullah Terrorist Organization’s (FETO) structuring in India and India’s seek for support to the membership of Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) are likely to top agenda of the meetings.
On May 3, Erdogan will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Russia’s Sochi city, where Syrian crisis and economic ties between Ankara and Moscow will come under discussion.
The last meeting of the two leaders was held in Moscow on March 10.
The Turkish president will later visit China to attend One Belt, One Road forum on May 14-15 in China’s capital city Beijing, which will also see the attendance of the leaders of 28 countries including Russian President Putin, Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Indonesian President Joko Widodo.
In 2013, Chinese President Xi Jinping proposed the One Belt One Road project to boost inter-connectivity and trade relations among Southeast Asian, Central Asian and European countries through modern maritime and land infrastructure links.
The project consists of the Silk Road Economic Belt, which follows the ancient Silk Road trade route from China's coast through Central Asia to Europe, and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, which will stretch from China's south to Southeast Asia and even Africa.
On May 16-17, Erdogan will meet the U.S. President Donald Trump, who recently congratulated him in a phone call for the Yes win in the referendum.
Trump also told Erdogan he cared about the friendship between Turkey and the U.S., and noted ‘there were important things to do together’.
After his visit to the U.S., Erdogan is scheduled to attend a summit of leaders of NATO member nations on May 25 in Brussels.
The U.S. president, who accused NATO of being "obsolete" during his election campaign, will also attend the summit.
Reporting by Ilkay Guder; Writing by Sibel Ugurlu
