ALMATY (A.A) - 04.06.2002 - President Ahmet Necdet Sezer met on Tuesday separately with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in Kazakh capital Almaty where he attends the summit meeting of Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia.
President Sezer called the two sides to act with common sense and through dialogue.
Presidential Foreign Affairs Chief Advisor and Cabinet Chief Tacan Ildem said that President Sezer did not held meetings with those two leaders as a mediator but his aim was to contribute to international community's efforts for peace.
Ildem said that the President who expressed his concern over the tension between Pakistan and India called the two sides to act with common sense and through dialogue.
Recalling that the concern felt about the tension between Pakistan and India had been expressed during the NATO-Russia summit meeting in Italian capital Rome last month, Ildem said that the summit had given President Sezer and Russian President Vladimir Putin the mission of recommending moderation and dialogue to those two countries.
Ildem stressed that even if the President had not undertaken such a mission, deep relations between Turkey and Pakistan required such an initiative.
Ildem added that Sezer who sat side by side with Putin in the luncheon had informed him on his meetings with the Indian and Pakistani leaders and Putin had told the President that he would expend efforts for development of Turkey-Russia relations.