April 7, 2005 - 11:52 AMT
TURKEY NEW GOAL - UN SECURITY COUNCIL TEMPORARY MEMBERSHIP
The new goal of Turkey's foreign policy is to become a temporary member of the UN Security Council within 2009-2010, the Yerkir newspaper reported. To attain this goal the Premier and the Foreign Minister go on tour to the African and Muslim countries hoping to win their support. Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan will soon visit the South African Republic, Morocco, Ethiopia and Tunisia, where in the course of the meetings with the leader of those countries he will ask them to support the initiative. Meanwhile Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul has already visited Saudi Arabia, where he met with Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic Conferences Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu. Yesterday the visit of the Turkish FM to the United Arab Emirates began. The main advantage, making Turkey one of the potential candidates for UN SC temporary member is contribution to UN peacekeeping operations worldwide. Turkey will compete with Austria and Island for the place in the Security Council.