India and Turkey described terrorism as a "shared worry" with Ankara extending full support to New Delhi. Addressing a joint press conference with President Erdogan, PM Modi said "no intent or goal or reason or rationale can validate terrorism", and both sides will work together, both bilaterally and multilaterally.
On his part, Erdogan addressed the recent attack on security personnel in central India's tribal district, a hotbed of leftist insurgency. But Turkey's own position on terrorism-related issues remains contradictory at best, says Professor Anwar K. Pasha at the New Delhi-based Jawaharlal Nehru University.
"We may vow cooperation on terrorism, trade and a host of issues, but the reality is that there are hardly any positives from this visit. On terrorism, they support Daesh in Syria, while our position is to contain radicalization. We support <…> President Bashar al-Assad like Russia and Iran due to our opposition to external intervention in any country," he told Sputnik.
Pasha maintains there is very little scope of improvement in trade ties as well as Turkey hardly makes anything which India needs.
"You can see that trade balance is tilted in our favor. They want us to help their companies expand in Central Asia, Africa and West Asia. They have some fissile material and thorium but we have more dependable partners like Russia in nuclear energy. There is little they can do for us but need India more after their hopes of getting EU membership are virtually over," he added.
The main reason India pitched for better ties with Ankara was to win favor within the Organization of Islamic Countries (OIS) but now we are now fine on our own, Pasha said.
