| LEILA RACHID DE COWLES | The Foreign Minister of Paraguay |
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Turkey And Paraguay Are Very Similar |
Is this your first official visit to Turkey?
This is the first time I’m here in Turkey. As I said during the conference, we really need to propel while we are in the map, in the sense that we need to introduce our work around the world. It has only been 17 years that we [Paraguay] are going through democratic regimes. Since that now we have political stability, we are working very hard in relations to all these issue.
We are trying to introduce our country to the globalised world, and although it has been a waste of time that we have not been able to introduce ourselves for so many decades, we are today a very serious and responsible country. We aim at showing to everybody that now we have been a glory in strengthening relations with the world. Therefore this is why maybe, although we had a stable relation with Turkey since 1952, this is our first visit. So many years after that, this is why we want very much first of all to get a warming, a consistent regime, and we are doing that and although it is a little bit late, it is not the last time and we are going to sign a very good relation with Turkey, if it were to come true.
What are the present relations, both economic and political, between Paraguay and Turkey?
I have to tell you that we had very good relations. The relation that we had before was of very humanist friends: we never had any problem. I mean we had been very peaceful with the relation between our countries. Our relation has been kept mainly through our relation in Geneva and in other international organizations. That is what we really needed and what we need right now is to keep a much more bilateral relation and not only through international organizations. This is the reason why we are here.
With my colleague minister of foreign affaires Abdulah GÜL, we had already signed a lot of agreements that are going to keep to the relation in a much more powerful way in order to strengthen the relation. We wish very much to continue in this way. And that is why we introduced some business opportunities to the association and showed that we are very similar countries. And a lot of men in power want also to our region, in South America, to move on.
What are your long-term aims for the relation between Paraguay and Turkey?
I really wish, and I’m talking on behalf of my government, and what we really need, is to continue strengthening the political relation between our two countries. Moreover, this needs to have a repercussion in a practical life. It also means that we really need to strengthen relations in the economic area, in 2 ways: (1) bilaterally: between this bilateral counsel that we suggested to the minister [Abdullah GÜL]. Trying to establish this bilateral community, helping the investment and promoting trade between both countries; (2) in a regional way, we would like very much start enunciating the free trade between MERCUSOR, which is a common market, and Turkey.
Therefore, there isn’t yet a strategy that we have already established with the minister of foreign affaires. However, we should do so because both of our countries aim to be in peace with the world; we are against any kind of international threat, like drug trafficking or terrorism; and we love the rules of law, in the sense of to keep the peace in the world through the multilateral roles. We are both members of the United Nations and many international organizations, and that really needs to put the bilateral relation in the spotlight. Maybe we did not do it before, but we are going to start now to built a relation between our countries.
For how many years have you been the minister of foreign affaires in Paraguay?
I became minister almost two years ago, but this is my real career, I’m a diplomatic of Paraguay. I started in the 1970’s my career in Paraguay and it has been almost 30 years that I’m planning this career. I started being just a very young officer at the ministry, then I became ambassador (to the White House, and also to Argentina), then an undersecretary, to later become a minister.
After this visit to Turkey, do you plan to go back directly to Paraguay or are you going to other visits in other countries?
No, I just came here to Turkey in order to show and demonstrate to the [Turkish] government that for us, Turkey represents a lot. As I said to the ministry [of foreign affaires] Abdullah GÜL, Turkey means to us like a siber beach: not only between Europe and Asia, but also both regions and South America and Latin American countries; and mainly because this year was declared by the ministry [of foreign affaires] and by your government to be the year of Latin America. Therefore I’m so happy being the first minister of Latin America to visit officially Turkey.
For the last question, you might want to add a message to Turkish businessmen.
First of all, as I was saying in my presentation to my vice minister, everybody is welcomed in Paraguay, but mainly Turkish people. The reason for this is that we are very similar: we realized that both countries have been very close; that we have already the same rule; both of our people are very traditional; both of our nation seek to be in peace with the world; and we are very religious people, although we in Paraguay have much more catholic people and you in Turkey have much more Muslims. In my personal case, I was born in the frame of a Muslim family. This shows partly that in Paraguay everybody come to see everybody without any kind of discrimination. Another example is that Paraguay was founded under a very open minded situation: when the Spanish conquered Paraguay, they matched with the natives, and today Paraguay is a very mixed region between the Spanish and the native people. Paraguay has always kept this tradition and we have no kind of discrimination: we are a very open society. For example, if you go to Paraguay and meet an owner of a range, you will see him keeping a good relation with people who work for him. This represents in its own kind that Paraguay had almost no social discrimination, although we do have different social classes as everywhere. There is barely no religious difference, everybody respects everybody and it is almost a very traditional society. That is why we really want to welcome many businessman and companies from Turkey to Paraguay because we just want to show what I’m saying here.