Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday said there could be no proposed India-Middle East trade corridor without Turkey.
“We say that there is no corridor without Turkey. Turkey is an important production and trade base. The most convenient line for traffic from the east to west has to pass through Turkey,” Erdogan told a press team that accompanied him for the G20 summit in India. Turkey is already backing another proposed corridor through Middle East. This will connect the Gulf to Turkey and Europe through a rail line and highway via ports in the UAE, Qatar and Iraq. It envisages a 1,200-km dual-track with trains running at 300 kmph and a modern highway from al-Faw, an Iraqi port. India, Saudi Arabia and EU have announced a trade corridor linking South Asia to Europe through rail lines and shipping channels via UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Israel.