India's Modi, Turkey's Erdogan hold unexpected meeting at regional summit

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan attends an extended-format meeting of heads of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member states at a summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan September 16, 2022. Foreign Ministry of Uzbekistan/Handout via REUTERS

(Reuters) - Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on the sidelines of a regional summit on Friday, in their first encounter in over two years since relations soured after Erdogan's comments on the disputed Muslim-majority region of Kashmir.

In early 2020 India's government had summoned the Turkish ambassador to lodge a diplomatic protest after Erdogan, on a visit to Pakistan, said the situation in Kashmir was worsening. His comments came after Modi's government in 2019 withdrew the region's autonomy and brought it under federal rule.