Gul: "Turkey is ready to support global partnership for development"

Currently in New York to attend the 65th session of the UN General Assembly, President Abdullah Gul yesterday addressed a summit of UN Millennium Development Goals attended by heads of state and government from 140 countries. Stating that development policies are among Ankara's top foreign policy priorities, Gul said, "Turkey is ready to extend full support to global partnership for development." With only five years left until the 2015 deadline to achieve Millennium Development Goals, the world urgently needs to reaffirm its promises to realize those goals, and to strengthen partnership to this end, Gul said. Stressing that efforts to achieve those goals should not be confined to the government, Gul added, "Non-governmental organizations and private sector should unite around a renewed agenda of development." As part of the summit, Gul also co-chaired a meeting on poverty, hunger and gender equality. Speaking at the meeting, Gul stressed that countries worldwide should reaffirm their political will to eliminate extreme poverty and famine, and to ensure gender equality by 2015, and that international partnership and solidarity for development should extend beyond that date as well. On steps that should be taken to eliminate excessive poverty and hunger around the world, Gul said, "Overcoming poverty and hunger throughout the world should remain our goal. We should adopt strategies to help the impoverished and the unprotected. We need to make progress in ensuring gender equality and empowering women. We should invest more in education and health care. With a stronger political commitment and action, we should also pursue environmental sustainability."