New Delhi: India sent an official representative to attend the Turkish national day celebration in Delhi Thursday, a year after giving it a miss, underlining the return to diplomatic courtesy in ties with countries that supported Pakistan during Operation Sindoor.
Alpana Dubey, Joint Secretary (Southern Europe) in the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), attended the celebration as the chief guest, along with Ambassador of Turkey to India, Ali Murat Ersoy. The return to diplomatic courtesy comes as India continues to look at stabilising ties with both Azerbaijan and Turkey.
During Operation Sindoor, Turkish drones were used by the Pakistani military. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also met with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif weeks after Operation Sindoor alongside Azeri President Ilham Aliyev as a part of the trilateral format established between these three countries.
Last year, Indian officials were formally informed to skip the Turkish national day celebration, indicating New Delhi’s irritation with Ankara’s support for Islamabad. Cabinet ministers, junior ministers, and officials from the MEA usually attend national day celebrations of various diplomatic missions in the national capital. The level of attendance also marks to an extent the current state of ties between the two countries.
Ankara came out in support of Islamabad last year, accusing India of “unprovoked aggression”. India had launched Operation Sindoor in retaliation for the Pahalgam terror attack. The military operation took aim at terror infrastructure across Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK). Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was in Turkey when the Pahalgam terror attack occurred in India.
Turkish President Erdogan has also consistently raised the Jammu and Kashmir issue at the United Nations General Assembly, bringing it up in at least seven speeches since 2019. Although in 2024, the issue did not feature in Erdogan’s address.
India spent most of 2025 declaring its support for the territorial integrity of Cyprus, in a message to Ankara, which has stakes in the continued partition of the European island between Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots.
Another country which had come out in support of Pakistan last year, Azerbaijan, has also seen recent diplomatic efforts to stabilise ties. External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar made a bilateral visit to Baku on 23 October, his first standalone trip to the country since 2019.
New Delhi and Baku looked to engage on a number of issues including security, combatting terrorism and energy. During his one-day visit, Jaishankar called on President Aliyev, and met with his counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov.
India has large investments in Azerbaijan’s oil and gas sector. The opening with Baku comes as tensions between Azerbaijan and Turkey have risen in recent weeks. Baku and Ankara have locked horns over a headscarf ban in schools imposed by the government of Azerbaijan. Erdogan sacked an adviser last Sunday in an effort to mend ties with Aliyev, according to reports.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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