The expert explains: the Pakistan-Turcy link and where India is | News explained

An anti-submarine corvette of the ADA Turkish class has accosted at the port of Karachi on May 2, and a Turkish Hercules Hercules Hercules Hercules, may have been transported, landed at Karachi airport on April 27.

Turkey said that these stops were routine and that the Hercules did not carry. But Turkey maintains a vast partnership with Pakistan which contrasts strongly with its antagonistic expressions towards India, both rhetorically and substantially.

Turkey was the only Pakistani ally in Western Asia to explicitly condemn Operation Sindoor. Other Gulf countries have not only refrained from supporting Pakistan, but have also shown greater sensitivity to the India position on cashmere.

India today has close ties to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, countries that have always been close to Pakistan. Why is Turkey different?

What are the interests of turkeys in Pakistan?

Their shared Islamic identity has long provided the foundations of a solid partnership between Turkey and Pakistan.

During the Cold War, Turkey and Pakistan were together in groups such as the Central Organization of Treaties (Cento) and the Regional Cooperation Development (RCD). The two countries almost always supported each other in times of crisis.

For example, Pakistan has always supported turkey claims against Greece in Cyprus. Pakistani leaders undertook to help Ankara militarily in the Cyprus crises of 1964 and 1971. In 1983, the military dictator of the Pakistans Zia-ul-Haq said that his country would be the first to recognize Turkish Cyprus if it declared independence.

After the Millennium Tour, and the rise of Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his political Islamism, the ideological link between Islamabad and Ankara was only intensifying.

Since 2003, when he became Prime Minister, Erdogan has visited Pakistan at least 10 times. His latest visit occurred in February of this year, while Erdogan, now president, co-chaired the 7th session of Pakistan-Trkiye High-Devel Strategic Cooperation Council.

Geopolitically, Turkey (with Qatar) is enclosed in competition with its Arab Gulf rivals, led by Saudi Arabia and water. To curb the influence of Saudi Arabia, Ankara has looked for alternative architectures of cooperation with non -fun Muslim states such as Pakistan and Malaysia.

For example, take the Kuala Lumpur 2019 Kuala Summit.

Designed by Pakistan, Turkey, Qatar, Malaysia and Indonesia, the summit was ostensibly intended to bring together prominent Muslim intellectuals and to discuss the role of development in the realization of national security. However, it was largely perceived as a challenge for the Saudi management of the Muslim world. When Riyadh finally prevailed over the Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan not to attend the summit, Erdogan accused Arabia of threatening Pakistan with sanctions.

The turkeys focus on the Indian Ocean region (IOR) has recently grown. In 2017, Ankara created its greatest base abroad in Somalia in a context of increasing economic and military cooperation with Mogadishu. In 2024, Turkey sold its Baykar TB2 drones in the Maldives.

Since 2000, the Turkish navy has organized many joint exercises with the Pakistani navy, the second largest in the IOR. On the other hand, he practically had no exercise with the Indian Navy.

What are the Pakistan interests in Türkiye?

Pakistan has benefited from coherent turns and strongly expressed support on cashmere. In February, Erdogan said that Turkey as in the past is in solidarity with our Cachemiri brothers today.

India judged these comments unacceptable and filed a demonstration with the Turkish ambassador to New Delhi. During the current crisis, Pakistani legislators recognized Turkey, China and Azerbaijan as the three main states that had expressed support to Islamabad on Friday.

But it was in the defense sector that Pakistan benefited the most from its partnership with Turkey, which has become in recent years as a major arms exporter.

According to SIPRI data, Turkish weapons exports (overall) jumped 103% between 2015-2019 and 20202024. By 2020, Turkey had become a second supplier of pakisting weapons (after China), according to the International Institute of London for strategic studies.

Created as a military advisory group in 1988, Ankara and Islamabad have a executive in time for defense cooperation. Recent Pakistani acquisitions include Bayraktar drones and Kemankes cruise missiles, of which Pakistan was one of the first buyers. ASISGUARD SONGAR is its acquisition, although not reported, although not reported.

In accordance with the concentration of the Indian Ocean of Ankaras, Turkey has played a central role in the Pakistan naval modernization efforts. In 2018, the Turkeys STM Defense Technologies concluded an agreement of $ 1 billion for four corvets of a new class for the Pakistani navy.

More importantly, Turkeys STM Pas Frances DCNS, the manufacturer of original equipment leads to life upgrades of life on Pakistan submarines Agosta 90B. This recalls the naval naval shipyard naval shipyards providing raises and upgrades to PNS Ghazi (a submarine of American Tanch class) after the American sanctions after the 1965 war prevented it from obtaining from American spare parts.

What has the Direct-Pakistani relationship intended for India?

For India, the support of turkeys in Pakistan on the question of cashmere was an irritant old. Do not tie your friendships at the expense of Indians, then the Minister of External Affairs, Salman Khurshid, said in reference to Turkey in an interview in 2013.

That said, India has adjusted its own geopolitical partnerships to counter the Turkish Pakistani link.

First, in Eastern Europe, India has always supported and hired the Republic of Cyprus supported by Greece. This is contrary to the Turkish and Pakistani positions, which supports the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. Greece has reciprocal the support of the position of the India in cashmere.

Second, in the South Caucasus, India has become one of the strongest military donors in Armenia, locked in a territorial conflict with Azerbaijan on Nagorno-Karabakh. In the exceptional phase, India has become the largest supplier of Armenia weapons at the end of 2024, even exceeding Russia.

Pakistan, which does not recognize the Armenian genocide by the Ottoman Empire in 1915, is probably for the concern of Turkish sensitivities, is aligned with Azerbaijan supported by Turkey. At the end of 2024, Pakistan signed a $ 1.6 billion contract to provide JF-17 Thunder Block III fighter planes. Pakistan, Turkey and Azerbaijan held their first trilateral summit in July 2024.

More broadly, Pakistan and Turkey are poorly aligned with India vis-à-vis recent strategic changes in global geopolitics.

Islamabad has obviously suffered from the United States that goes from its Afghanistan focusing partnership with Pakistan to a solid partnership focused on Indo-Pacific with India. For the prospect, Pakistan has not even been even appeared in the US official Indo-Pacific Strategy in the United States. India has presented at least five times.

On the other hand, the East-Europe economic corridor planned planned by Turkey, which has historically considered itself the bridge between Asia and Europe. The IMEC has aroused explicit criticism from Erdogan and reinforced turkeys try to establish its own corridor in Asia-Europe (the so-called Iraqi development route).

Turkey is today a strong and rooted part of the Pakistans International Alliance which works at the detriment India, second after China. The fact that the humanitarian aid India in Turkey after the 2023 devastating earthquake did not substantially affect Ankaras' prospects for New Delhi testify to the force of the Pakistani factor in India-Turkey relations.

Bashir Ali Abbas is main research partner with strategic and defense research council, New Delhi