Cooperation with Malaysia, Qatar, Iran will continue, Erdoğan says

İBRAHIM ALTAY

Unity of Islamic world is crucial in solving the Muslim communities' problems and the quadraple summit with Malaysia, Qatar and Iran shows the intention to achieve that end, Erdoğan said

Turkey will continue its cooperation with Malaysia, Qatar and Iran over both regional and international issues President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Friday, underlining the importance of unity in the Islamic world.

"(During the Kuala Lumpur summit) we had the chance to discuss the challenges that the Islamic world faces with the participation of the presidents of Turkey, Malaysia, Qatar and Iran as well as many other high-level representatives from various countries," Erdoğan told Turkish media representatives before returning to Turkey, in Kuala Lumpur.

Underlining that the issues of development, research and improvement, science and technology, entrepreneurship and the defense industry were particularly discussed during the summit, the president said that "hopefully" the cooperation between the aforementioned countries will continue with similar summits on the way.

Erdoğan stated that within the scope of the summit, there were also many bilateral meetings with Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.

"In order to solve our issues, we will continue to increase our cooperation and dialogue in the upcoming period as well," the president underlined.

The Kuala Lumpur Summit held from Dec. 18 to Dec. 21 was a global platform for dialogue that brought together Muslim leaders, intellectuals and scholars to produce solutions to problems faced by Muslims.

It focused on issues such as development and sovereignty, integrity and good governance, culture and identity, justice and freedom, peace, security and defense, and technology and internet governance.

Expressing that the four leaders outlined goals during the event, Erdoğan said this will not be a process that is only being made up of this summit but will see further action as well.

"We will continue our work in a way that would involve the areas of science, art, the defense industry, economy, trade and culture," Erdoğan said, adding that they, as the leaders, have taken all the notes needed to improve these areas.

"Thanks to this opportunity, we had the chance to ask why the Islamic world, which was the symbol of science, knowledge, culture, art and welfare, has come to this end. We need to sincerely ask these questions and answer them," Erdoğan expressed, adding that despite huge potential hidden within Muslim countries, due to problems such as internal conflicts, ignorance, wars and bad management, this potential remains untouched.

The president also said the backwardness of the Muslim countries benefits no one.

"However, the Muslim countries themselves should pull themselves together," he emphasized.

Regarding the absence of Pakistan and Indonesia at the summit, the president said he would have liked to have seen them present as well. When it comes to Saudi Arabia's and United Arab Emirates' (UAE) effect in this absence, Erdoğan stated that this is not a first for the countries since they have the tendency to put pressure on other countries in doing or not doing things.

"Unfortunately, we see that Saudi Arabia pressures Pakistan. Now, there are promises that the country has given to Pakistan regarding the central bank. However, more than that, there are 4 million Pakistanis working in Saudi Arabia. They (threaten by saying that they) would send (Pakistanis) back and re-employ Bangladeshi people instead," Erdoğan said, adding that the kingdom has also used similar threatening tactics regarding the central bank case by claiming that they would withdraw their money. According to Erdoğan, due to its economic difficulties, Pakistan had to obey such threats, while implying that Indonesia has also suffered from similar problems.