Erdoğan headed to Seoul, the capital of South Korea, on Friday evening in order to attend the 2012 Seoul Nuclear Security Summit to be held March 26-27. Erdoğan is expected to reject the cynical approach to the nuclear arms issue, arguing that only focusing on Iran in terms of nuclear proliferation will not help non-proliferation efforts in the world, according to officials at the Turkish Prime Ministry.
Israel is known to possess nuclear weapons, although it has never officially attested to that.
The prime minister will also emphasize the right to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. Wrapping up talks in Seoul, Erdoğan will go directly to Tehran to discuss the results and final message of the summit.
The Seoul Nuclear Summit, which will be attended by roughly 60 national representatives from Europe, Asia and the US, will facilitate detailed discussions on how international cooperation can be used to mitigate nuclear threats.
Turkey also attended the US-hosted nuclear security summit in April 2010, reiterating its goal for a nuclear-free neighborhood. Turkey is opposed to further nuclear proliferation, calling for the efficient control of existing nuclear weapons acquired by its neighbors.
Turkey is a member of the international Nuclear Proliferation and Disarmament Initiative, which recognizes the catastrophic consequences that would result from the use of nuclear weapons as well as the right of every country to have access to nuclear power for peaceful purposes. The next meeting of the initiative -- which is led by a group of 10 countries, including Australia, Canada, Chile, Germany, Japan and Holland -- will be held in Turkey in April. EU governments, the US and Middle Eastern nations such as Israel are deeply concerned over Iran's uranium enrichment program, which is alleged by some to be part of a wider program to develop nuclear weapons. Tehran maintains that its nuclear program is solely for the purposes of generating energy.
Turkey spearheaded efforts last year to revive diplomacy in the nuclear issue between Western nations and Iran and hosted talks regarding Iran's nuclear program in İstanbul. Another round of talks is expected to be held in İstanbul between the P5+1 countries -- the five permanent members of the UN Security Council (the US, Russia, China, Britain and France) plus Germany -- and Iran.
Turkey's efforts to bring Iran and Western powers together has been at the expense of its image in the West, political observers claim.
Erdoğan-Obama meeting in Seoul
Prior to the start of the nuclear summit, Erdoğan and US President Barack Obama are set to meet in Seoul on March 25 on a wide range of issues related to the Middle East.
According to information from the Prime Ministry, Erdoğan and Obama will discuss the political developments in Syria, Iran and Afghanistan as well as the Middle East peace process and measures against the terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party's (PKK) attacks in southeastern Turkey.
Erdoğan will emphasize that a clear message should be sent to the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad at the international summit to be held April 1 in İstanbul. Assad has not been deterred from conducting assaults against his own people despite renewed calls from the UN.
The UN Security Council had called on the opposition and regime forces to stop fighting and to seek a negotiated settlement to the year-long uprising. The council finally agreed upon a joint declaration against the Assad regime on Wednesday and has indicated it will take "further steps" in the event the violence of the regime does not stop.
Erdoğan is also expected to express Turkey's demand for the Kurdish autonomous administration in northern Iraq to take a more active role in disarming PKK militants in the region during his talks with Obama. In 2009, northern Iraq's Kurdish administration was integrated to a trilateral mechanism between Turkey, the US and Iraq in order to eradicate the PKK.