Can the Rise of ‘New’ Turkey Lead to a ‘New’ Era in India-Turkey Relations?

Turkey and India have undergone an immense social, political and economic transformation since the end of the Cold War. This has also been the case when it comes to their foreign policies. However, Turkey’s truly multidimensional foreign policy came into existence in 2002. Since then Turkey has been actively re-defining its foreign policy preferences in Africa, the Middle East and Asia. Turkey’s Asia policy is no longer based on Pakistan as it was a decade ago. ‘New’ Turkey is deeply interested in developing stronger relations with China, India and other rising Asian powers as part of the diversification of its economy and foreign policy. Turkey-India relations have a huge potential to develop and benefit both sides in coming years as relations at social, political and economic levels are already flourishing. The biggest challenges are, however, to overcome the lack of knowledge about each side and the lack of global dynamics in Turkey-India relations. Both Turkey and India are rising powers but they still cooperate at the global level in a very limited way.

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