Thank you very much Mr President and thank you for the invitation to join you for these discussions that we have had today – and very fruitful discussions between us.

Turkey is one of the UK’s oldest friends. Our relations stretch back over 400 years.

But there is much that we can do in the future to build on that relationship together.

I am proud that the UK stood with you on 15 July last year in defence of your democracy. Now it is important that Turkey sustains that democracy by maintaining the rule of law and upholding its international human rights obligations as the government has undertaken to do.

We have discussed, as the president has said, a number of important issues today from Cyprus, where we are committed to playing our parts for an early settlement, to Syria, where we are working together to fight Daesh and create the conditions for peace.

We are also agreeing to step up our work together on aviation security with a programme of shared training and information exchange.

You mentioned, Mr President, the opportunities for enhancing trade between our two countries and we discussed that. We both want to build on our existing links and I believe that doing so will be to the benefit of both our countries and for the prosperity of both our nations.

And we have agreed we will have a joint working group to prepare the ground for our post-Brexit trading relationship.

So we have covered quite a range of subjects today. What has underpinned our discussions has been the opportunity for Turkey and the UK to build on our existing relations which, as I say, have stretched back many years, to our mutual benefit for the future.

So thank you and I look forward to maintaining these talks with your Prime Minister later today.

Secretary, I&B, Shri Ajay Mittal has said the North East Film Festival (NEFF), Fragrances from the North East served as a unique window to the films, food, culture and handicrafts diversity of North East and enabled the cultural amalgamation of the region with the rest of the country.

The first ever “Investors Summit” exclusively for North Eastern Region (NER), organized jointly by the Ministry of Textiles and the Ministry of DoNER during 29-30 January, 2017, would be inaugurated by the Union Textiles Minister, Smt. Smriti Zubin Irani in Shillong, at the State Convention Centre, on 29th January, 2017.

This year, spectators at the Beating the Retreat ceremony will be enthralled with the mesmerising and foot tapping music of the bands from the Army, the Navy, the Air Force and the State Police and Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF). As many as 26 performances on the historic Vijay Chowk, mostly composed by Indian musicians will thrill the audience with patriotic fervour.

The President of India Shri Pranab Mukherjee launched the Pulse Polio programme for 2017 by administering polio drops to children less than five years old, at the Rahstrapati Bhawan, in the presence of the Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare Shri J P Nadda and Ministers of State (Health) Shri Faggan Singh Kulaste and Smt. Anupriya Patel, here today. Tomorrow is the National Immunization Day.