Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan<\/a> in 2002 had new political and economic imperatives to redirect Turkey\u2019s foreign relations.<\/p>\nIndia-Turkey relations saw a breakthrough, marked by frequent high-level visits, exchange of business and cultural delegations, increasing bilateral trade volume, and people-to-people interactions. Bilateral trade grew from $700 million in 2002 to $13.82 billion in 2022.<\/p>\n
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A big test came in 2019, when India abrogated Article 370, which had accorded a special status to Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistan criticised the decision, and was supported by Turkey. By 2019, Turkey\u2019s view of South Asia began matching a Cold War-era template, prioritising security over trade and economy.<\/p>\n
Most recently, Erdogan\u2019s India policy reached its decisive end during the brief India-Pakistan conflict last year, following the terror attack in Kashmir\u2019s Pahalgam. Turkey\u2019s condemnation of Operation Sindoor sparked massive backlash in India, with calls for the cancellation of tourism, trade, cultural, and educational MoUs.<\/p>\n
Nobody imagined the free fall of India-Turkey bilateral relations would come only months after a meeting of Indian and Turkish officials, academicians, and think tanks in Ankara to discuss ways to improve ties. The Indian Embassy in Ankara was the main supporter of the event with the pro-government Turkish think tank, SETA. The deputy Foreign Minister, Ambassador Berris Ekinci, who led the recent India-Turkey dialogue in New Delhi, was the chief guest.<\/p>\n
Operation Sindoor thus revealed the limits of the trade-centric India-Turkey relations, which failed to work as a shield during a major political crisis. While the Turkish side mostly remained interested in building trade ties, the Indian side gradually found that it didn\u2019t work well in developing more confident political relations.<\/p>\n
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Turkey remains the only West Asian country that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has not yet visited since he came to power in 2014, except to attend the 2015 G20 Summit in Antalya. Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has also never officially visited Turkey.<\/p>\n
Recent setbacks, incentives for deeper ties<\/p>\n
After Operation Sindoor, another setback for Turkey came in the form of the India-EU Free Trade Agreement signed in 2026. Since Turkey is a member of the customs union, Indian exports will reach Turkish markets with zero or lower tariffs, but Turkish exports will not receive a similar benefit in India. The way out for Turkey is to ask New Delhi for a comprehensive economic partnership agreement or an FTA, which has been under consideration since Erdogan\u2019s last state visit to India in 2017.<\/p>\n
But there are also reasons for the two countries to engage. In 2023, the India-Middle East Economic Corridor (IMEC) was announced as an ambitious counter to China\u2019s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) for infrastructure investment. It does not include Turkey, which has, of late, worked to create a new Development Corridor connecting the UAE, Iraq, and Turkey via train, road, and sea links.<\/p>\n
Following the recent conflicts in the Middle East, the IMEC has yet to progress as planned, and the Development Corridor could offer alternative routes for Indian businesses to reach European markets via Turkish ports.<\/p>\n
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The ongoing Iran-Israel war has also seriously challenged India\u2019s fragile balancing act between Israel, Iran, and the Gulf nations. Interestingly, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt have emerged as key players to mediate between the US and Iran. Part of this has to do with Turkey gradually shifting away from its previous ideological pursuits by normalising relations with its key regional rivals, including Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the UAE. This is of interest to India, which has deep ties with West Asis and a large diaspora residing there.<\/p>\n
Despite hurdles to their ties, Indian and Turkish interests in the Gulf, Central Asia, and Africa are gradually converging. A prolonged isolation is neither possible nor helpful to their security, trade, and strategic interests.<\/p>\n
Indians often find the Turkish view of India perplexing, in that it fails to fully recognise India\u2019s economic and strategic centrality in the changing world order. Parallely, Turkish institutions, media, and public opinion seem to have little interest in understanding Indian perspectives. India\u2019s policy perspectives on Turkey should also appreciate its bilateral and regional merits. Turkey has effectively changed its strategic profile \u2014 from being a NATO-centric country to a state of multiple alignments, including a direct security role in West Asia and Eurasia.<\/p>\n
Theoretically, it is difficult to imagine that two nations with so much regional and global clout can stay isolated and unaffected from each other\u2019s actions for long. The current West Asian crisis might have provided India and Turkey a small window of opportunity to reset their relations. However, given the past hiccups, a reset devoid of regional considerations towards evolving an inclusive or de-hyphenated policy may not be sustainable.<\/p>\n
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Omair Anas teaches international relations at Ankara Yildirim Beyazit University. He was a co-organiser of the 2025 India-Turkey Conference in the Turkish capital of Ankara. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"India and Turkey held the 12th round of foreign office consultations earlier this month, four years after the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34376,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16467],"tags":[22924,22919,14858,22922,22925,22923,22915,22920,22916,22918,22921,7098,22917],"class_list":{"0":"post-34375","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-recep-tayyip-erdogan","8":"tag-cyprus-issue-india-turkey","9":"tag-erdogan-india-policy","10":"tag-express-explained","11":"tag-india-eu-fta-impact-turkey","12":"tag-india-foreign-policy-turkey","13":"tag-india-middle-east-corridor-turkey","14":"tag-india-turkey-relations","15":"tag-india-turkey-tensions","16":"tag-india-turkey-ties-explained","17":"tag-india-turkey-trade-relations","18":"tag-operation-sindoor-turkey-reaction","19":"tag-recep-tayyip-erdogan","20":"tag-turkey-pakistan-kashmir-stance"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/116437183558495869","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34375\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}