Speaking at the “Türkiye-Malaysia Strategic Cooperation in the New Century” meeting, President Erdoğan said: “We need a new understanding and a new global order to solve problems in all areas from economy to diplomacy, from trade to security. Building a system which embraces everyone, which is fair and sharing, which recognizes differences as richness and is based on trust is an obligation rather than an option.”
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and First Lady Emine Erdoğan attended the “Türkiye-Malaysia Strategic Cooperation in the New Century” meeting at Putrajaya International Convention Centre, where President Erdoğan delivered a speech.
“Every time I visit Malaysia, which we consider as a true friend and brother, I feel a distinguished excitement and happiness. I would like to thank my dear brother Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, his wife and all the Malaysian people for their warm hospitality that made us feel at home,” President Erdoğan said.
“As you know, the relations between the Turkish and Malaysian peoples date back to the 16th century. We share a common set of values both historically and culturally. Last year, we celebrated the 60th anniversary of the establishment of our diplomatic relations with great excitement and happiness. I hope that these close and friendly relations between our countries will continue in the future in a much stronger way by gaining momentum in every field,” President Erdoğan said.
“POLARIZATION HAS ESCALATED, AND PROTECTIONIST AND UNILATERAL APPROACHES HAVE BECOME ROUTINE”
Pointing to significant changes in the context of regional and global developments, President Erdoğan said: “While production, consumption and distribution habits are changing radically, our world is simultaneously being dragged towards a new partition struggle. This storm of change brings along a number of political, social and economic ruptures on a global scale. In this process, we observe that competition between countries has become more destructive, polarization has escalated, and protectionist and unilateral approaches have become routine.”
“First of all, we need to establish a point here; the victors of the Second World War are the founders of the global system. It is these same countries that set the rules of the game in many areas from international relations to economy, finance and trade. For the last 80 years, a significant portion of the resources transferred from east to west have been used to support the economic, political and military power of these countries and to finance the welfare of their people,” President Erdoğan said.
Asking whether it is a coincidence that the independence movements that started in the 1960s were soon thwarted by military coups, President Erdoğan said: “Is it just a coincidence that the victims of the power struggle between the two main actors of the Cold War were usually oppressed nations? Can we assume as innocent the overthrow of leaders who wanted to bring trade relations with the great powers to a more balanced and fairer point? If the 55 percent of the world’s population today gets only 1.3 percent of the total income, isn’t there a problem with the system? Can we consider it normal that a child born in North America has more opportunities than 70 children living in Africa?”
“There can be no peace, tranquility, and development on behalf of humanity in a place where there is no justice and where justice is shelved for the sake of savage interests, President Erdoğan said.
“WE OPENLY EXPRESS OUR OBJECTION TO THIS UNFAIR ORDER WHERE MIGHT MAKES RIGHT”
“We openly express our objection to this unfair order where might makes right,” President Erdoğan said. “As Türkiye, we believe that; a system, in which the Islamic world, with a population of more than 2 billion, is not represented, cannot dispense justice because it is not fair itself. A structure that excludes one fourth of the world’s population cannot be expected to provide security and serve global stability and peace. The same is also true for other groups that are not represented in the global governance system.”
“We need a new understanding and a new global order to solve problems in all areas from economy to diplomacy, from trade to security. Building a system which embraces everyone, which is fair and sharing, which recognizes differences as richness and is based on trust is an obligation rather than an option. Our maxim ‘The World is Bigger than 5’ has become one of the symbols of this quest for a new order,” President Erdoğan said.
“A FAIRER WORLD IS POSSIBLE”
“This ideal will only be realized if the shackles on minds are shattered. We must first and foremost believe in the possibility of building a world where peace prevails over conflict, trust over fear, peace over terror and violence, prosperity over poverty,” President Erdoğan said. “This is essentially what we are pointing to when we say that ‘a Fairer World is Possible’. A fairer world is possible in terms of economic, commercial, social and international representation, even if the club of privileged who benefit from the current system do not want it.”
Noting that Türkiye also strives to establish new partnerships and widen its foreign relations and cooperation network, President Erdoğan said: “Recognizing the growing importance of Asia, we aim to strengthen our ties and cooperation with the continent within the scope of our vision of Asia Anew, which we announced in 2019. In the past 5 years, we have made significant progress in this regard. Malaysia has always had an exceptional place in this initiative. We upgraded our relations with Malaysia to strategic partnership level in 2014 and to comprehensive strategic partnership level in 2022. We started to strengthen our cooperation with concrete steps in a manner befitting the deep-rooted and close relations between our peoples. For us, Malaysia is one of the leading countries in its region with its population of nearly 35 million, dynamic economy and qualified human resources.”
Stating that Türkiye aims to develop its relations with a vision of technological cooperation and co-production, President Erdoğan said: “TAI Malaysia has become an active facility that offers jobs to more than 100 young Malaysian engineers. With the cooperation of our defense industry companies, the construction of the second batch of coastal mission ships has started. We have significant cooperation with regard to the ANKA UAVs. In line with the targets we set in trade volume, we exceeded $5 billion in 2024. We aim to increase our trade to $10 billion in a balanced way. We want to increase our cooperation in every sector, from semiconductor technologies to automotive, from aircraft technologies to simulators for civilian purposes, and to move forward together with Malaysia in different fields. Our countries have an exceptional feature of being the gateways to Asia and Europe. In this respect, we would like to further strengthen air links between us.”
“WE NEVER LEFT THE PEOPLE OF GAZA AND PALESTINE ALONE”
“Since the first day of the massacres in Gaza, where Israel has been committing genocide, we have carried out a very intense diplomatic traffic. We drew attention to Israel’s state terrorism on all platforms including the United Nations General Assembly. We condemned the oppression and became the strong voice of Palestine. In addition to the more than 100 thousand tons of humanitarian aid we sent to Gaza, we made our stance very clear by completely stopping commercial relations with Israel. We made every effort to end the attacks and to hold those responsible accountable before international law,” President Erdoğan said. “We faced a lot of pressure, threats, and suffered from character assassinations by the Zionist lobby because of these efforts for 15 months, but we never gave in to the oppression and the oppressor. We never left the oppressed people of Gaza and Palestine alone for a moment. This process also showed us the impotence of the international system. Unfortunately, the United Nations Security Council could not stop to Israel’s massacres in Gaza, which claimed the lives of more than 61 thousand Palestinians, mostly children and women, for the reasons I have just mentioned. Especially the Western world has performed very poorly during these 471 days. International journalism organizations and human rights organizations, which merely watched hundreds of journalists being massacred, also failed the Gaza test.”
“NO ONE CAN INFLICT A SECOND NAKBA ON THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE”
“For 471 days, we witnessed a truly great downfall in the name of humanitarian values and international law. 2 million people squeezed into 360 square kilometers experienced one of the most brutal and barbaric genocides of the last century. Despite that, our brothers and sisters in Gaza, every one of whom, from young to old, from men to women, are the living embodiment of dignity, did not surrender, did not kneel before the oppressors, and did not abandon their homeland. Thanks to the heroic struggle of the resistance forces, Israel failed to achieve its strategic goals. As a result, a ceasefire agreement was reached on January 19 between the Palestinian Resistance Movement Hamas and Israel, a process to which we also contributed. However, we see that Israel continues its lawless and spoiled behavior. In our eyes, proposals to expel Palestinians from the land they have lived in for thousands of years cannot be taken seriously. No one can, nor will anyone be able to, inflict a second Nakba on the Palestinian people, with Allah’s permission”, President Erdoğan said.
“More than 61,000 innocent people were martyred in Gaza. Schools, churches, mosques, universities have been bombed. Almost 80 percent of the buildings in Gaza have been destroyed, and there is, reportedly, a huge debris of more than 50 million tons. The financial cost of the destruction in Gaza is estimated to be $100 billion. The reason for this heavy toll is Israel and the Netanyahu government. Israel must pay this bill on its own. Israeli administration must first be charged for the destruction they have caused, and with this, the reconstruction process in Gaza should be initiated. Every loss that goes uncompensated will make the perpetrator even more violent. Israel cannot be allowed to go on as if nothing has happened after causing so much destruction, so much suffering, so much massacre. Instead of looking for a place for Gazans, he has not been able to uproot from their land despite carrying out massacres for 15 months, Netanyahu should look for a source to cover the $100 billion in damage he caused in Gaza,” President Erdoğan said.
“Let me also point out that we suffered a great devastation in the earthquake of February 6, 2023. We lost more than 53 thousand lives and more than 311 thousand buildings became unusable. Despite this grave picture, we, within less than 2 years after the earthquake, removed the debris, started construction and delivered 201 thousand houses so far. We will deliver 453 thousand houses and workplaces before the end of this year. We, as the Islamic world, can achieve the same constructive success in Gaza. We can bring Gaza back to its feet in a very short time. As long as this money, which Gazans are already entitled to, is collected from Israel. The houses, lands, and workplaces seized by the Israeli state and rogue settlers must be returned to the rightful Palestinian owners,” President Erdoğan said.
“In addition to the reconstruction of Gaza, it is crucial that we increase our efforts for the establishment of an independent and geographically integrated Palestinian state with East al-Quds as its capital. I believe that we owe it to the oppressed Palestinian people as their brothers and men of conscience,” President Erdoğan said.
