'Asia has a lion, that is Recep Tayyip Erdoğan,' says Pakistani senator during the session of the voting
Disillusioned by the West, Turkey is leaning towards the Asian international bodies for the multilateral cooperation.
After gaining chairman status in the Energy Club of the Shanghai Cooperation for 2017, this time Turkey's engagement with Asia has reared up again in Cambodia where Turkey has been elected as the term president of the Asian Parliamentary Assembly (APA) in its 9th plenary.
In the session held in Cambodia yesterday, Turkey competed with China and Pakistan.
Convinced by talks with the Turkish side, Pakistan also backed Turkey's membership later.
As a result of the voting in which 40 member and 20 observer states participated, Turkey has been declared the president of the assembly for a two-year period.
In the session, the Pakistani senator Mushahid Hussain's words were clapped enthusiastically:
''Asia has a lion, that is Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.''
The Asian Parliamentary Assembly has 42 member countries, among which are China, Russia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia and so on. Sixteen other countries like Japan and Qatar have the observer status.
Although to some extent, it has an influence on the Asian politics.
''This is a very vivid platform with 300 to 350 members of parliaments, presidents, ministers from different countries of Asia and we will utilize its potential as far as we can,'' said AK Party deputy Burhan Kaya, who represented Turkey in the session.
Emphasizing that just like the European Parliament, APA is endeavoring to create an Asian parliament, Kayatürk added, ''This is a structure which is attributed great importance and never ignored by countries like China, Russia, India.''
