Hamid Ansari to visit Turkey to strengthen trade and commerce ties

Vice President Hamid Ansari will be undertaking a six-day bilateral visit to Turkey starting from Monday that will further strengthen trade and commerce ties between the two countries.

Ansari will be accompanied by a delegation of Indian businessmen, and will participate in a Business Forum at the Turkish Chamber of Businessmen and Industrialists, Istanbul. This will be the first high level delegation to visit Turkey after then prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s visit to that country in 2003.

Ansari will meet Turkish president Abdullah Gul and hold discussions with prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He will also hold delegation level talks with members of the Turkish Grand National Assembly, led by its speaker Camil Cicek.

Ansari will also be accompanied by minister for social welfare and justice, Mukul Wasnik, senior CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury and MPs Ranjitsingh Vijaysinh Patil, Vijay Pal Singh and Imgrid McLeod.

At a media briefing Secretary (West), Ministry of External Affairs, Madhusudan Ganpathi said whole gamut of regional and international issues will be discussed during the visit. India, he said, which will strengthen cooperation in IT, automobiles, engineering and infrastructure sectors.

For Ansari, the visit will have an added personal resonance as his great grand uncle, M.A. Ansari, had led a medical mission to Turkey in 1912 to provide aid to the Turkish army in the Balkan War.

Meanwhile, India offered an additional soft loan of US $35 million for developmental projects to the Union of Comoros. This is in addition to the earlier offer of US $ 41.6 Million for an 18 MW power project in Moroni, a Ministry of External Affairs statement said on Saturday.

“Additional secretary (Africa) Gurjit Singh paid an official visit to the Union of Comoros from October 4 to 6. This was the first visit by an Indian official to Comoros and came after the enhanced cooperation with Africa announced at the 2nd India-Africa Forum Summit (IAFS) in May 2011,” MEA said.

During his visit, ASA called on president Dr Ikililou Dhoinine and other leaders. “India has also offered to set up a Vocational Training Centre in Moroni to impart skills in plumbing, welding, electrical, civil works and IT to Comorians as soon as a site was finalized. In response to a Comorian request for support in solar energy he expressed India’s readiness to train Comorian women in the field of solar engineering in the Barefoot College of India under ITEC,” MEA said.

“President Dhoinine expressed his deep appreciation of India’s assistance for the development of Comoros,” MEA said.