AK Party Deputy Chairman of External Affairs, Spokesman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Turkish Parliament Suat KINIKLIOGLU presented Turkish foreign policy at the University of Exeter in the UK.

KINIKLIOGLU’s speech titled “Turkey’s neighborhood policy” attracted many students from the University. KINIKLIOGLU focused on Turkey’s foreign political initiatives, and the mediation role it plays in the Middle East and the Caucasus. He emphasized the Turkish foreign policy principle based on “zero-problems with its neighbors” and stressed Turkey’s increasing regional power.

KINIKLIOGLU further explained that Turkey wanted to eliminate problems with neighboring countries in order to play a more significant role in international politics. Within this context KINIKLIOGLU noted Turkey improved its economic and political relations with almost all of its neighbors.
In order to give some examples KINIKLIOGLU mentioned the “Caucasus Stability and Cooperation Platform” (CSCP) initiated by Turkey following the Russian-Georgian war, the “Iraq Neighbors Platform” which has become an effective platform for discussion on Iraq and the indirect negotiations hosted by Turkey between Israel and Syria.

KINIKLIOGLU added that Turkey’s UN Security Council and G20 memberships were a direct result of its multidimensional, constructive and active foreign policy. These memberships were also facilitating the continuation of this foreign policy vision. “Having reached internal stability and confidence through the AK Party government Turkey also initiated problem solving projects in its region” said KINIKLIOGLU.