Saudi pressure forced Pakistan to stay away from KL Summit

Saudi pressure forced Pakistan to stay away from KL Summit, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at Kuala Lumpur summi. 

Regarding the absence of Pakistan and Indonesia at the summit, he said he wanted them present as well.

UAE and Saudi policy

President Erdogan further said that Saudi Arabia’s and United Arab Emirates have the tendency to put pressure on other countries in doing or not doing things.

Specially, he gave the example of Pakistan, Indonesia and Somalia.

Saudi pressure forced Pakistan

He said that unfortunately, we see that Saudi Arabia pressures Pakistan.

Furthermore, Erdogan referred to Saudi promises for Pakistan’s central bank.

However, more than that, 4 million Pakistanis  are working in Saudi Arabia while kingdom threateneed they would send them back and re-employ Bangladeshi people instead.

Turkish president further said that Saudi kingdom has also used similar threatening tactics on SBP that Saudis would withdraw their money.

According to Erdoğan, due to its economic difficulties, Pakistan had to obey such threats.

Moreover, he implied that Indonesia has also suffered from similar problems.

Somalia rises with assistance from Turkey

When one of the journalists mentioned that similar situations have also taken place in Iraq, Syria and Somalia, Erdoğan agreed.

He said as you know, these (Saudi Arabia and the UAE) did not contribute to Somalia at all.

However, Somalia, despite being in trouble (at the time) took a stance,”  he said, referring to the UAE’s intention of taking on initiatives in the country that were eventually canceled either by the UAE itself or denied by the Somalian government.

Erdoğan also pointed to the fact that “surprisingly” almost none of these supposed “bigger” countries have any embassies in Somalia.

“They have constructed something similar to a trailer near the airport, and they call it an embassy.

He said Turkey has the biggest embassy in the world in Somalia. Turkey is conducting many projects in that African country to assist the Somalian people.

Erdogan said that tight now, we are providing military training to Somalians and their training is taking place there.

He said Turkey was also providing health services and educational services while many Somalian students study in Turkey.