President Pranab Mukherjee and his Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul (extreme left) receive a guard of honour in Ankara on Monday. (AFP)

Ankara, Oct. 7: Turkey today provided partial endorsement of India’s call for the uprooting of Pakistan’s terror infrastructure while supporting New Delhi’s role in rebuilding efforts in Afghanistan.

However, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s statement, during a meeting with President Pranab Mukherjee, appeared to fall short of echoing India’s demand for an end to cross-border terror from Pakistan.

Indian officials quoted Erdogan as saying that “countries are sometimes unable to contain terror but we hope Pakistan would be able to uproot” terror from its soil — a stand compatible with Islamabad’s projection of itself as a terror victim.

Erdogan’s statement comes at a time a leading Turkish construction company, rated as the world’s No. 2 in the sector, has bid for a hydel power project at Sawalkot in Jammu and Kashmir with Ankara’s diplomatic support, Indian officials said.

The Turkish initiative appears significant since Islamabad is opposed to any new dams in Jammu and Kashmir and has been complaining that India’s water management in the state is hurting Pakistan.

Any Turkish overture to India must also be seen in the context of Iran’s possible and gradual return to normal diplomacy because Tehran will be a challenge to Ankara’s quest for regional power status.

Erdogan, whose Justice and Development Party is considered by many to have an Islamist agenda, complimented India for its outreach to Pakistan.

Mukherjee explained that the process had been vitiated by continued infiltrations from across the border and ceasefire violations by Pakistan.

“All that we are asking is that Pakistan keep to its previous commitments” on curbing terror and dismantling the terror infrastructure on its soil, the President was quoted as saying.

Mukherjee had earlier told Turkish newspaper Today’s Zaman that the so-called “non-state actors (from Pakistan) do not come from heaven”, triggering speculation that he was taking a harder line than Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

However, officials said Mukherjee was in essence simply reiterating what Singh had told US President Barrack Obama last month.

Mukherjee and Erdogan reaffirmed their joint commitment to the stability and development of Afghanistan.

India, which has won the bid for one of the world’s largest iron-ore mines in Afghanistan and plans to set up a railroad link to it from Chabahar port in Iran, is looking for Turkish help to protect the investment from Taliban attacks. Turkey will be the only Nato power to remain committed with land troops in Afghanistan after next year’s US-led pullout.

The two countries have also decided to revive an Indian proposal to have a military-to-military co-operation pact with Turkey — a suggestion shelved after being mooted in 1994, apparently because of the strong links between the Pakistani and Turkish armies.