As bilateral relations strained over the Kashmir issue, India on Tuesday issued an advisory to its citizens visiting Turkey, asking them to “exercise utmost caution” while visiting the Middle East country.

“Government of India has been receiving queries from Indian nationals on travelling to Turkey in view of the situation in the region. Although there have been no reports of untoward incidents in the country so far involving Indian nationals, travellers are requested to exercise utmost caution while travelling to Turkey,” the Indian Embassy in Ankara tweeted.

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It has also put out helpline numbers of the Embassy of India in Ankara and the Consulate General of Istanbul, for those seeking assistance.

Travel Advisory@MEAIndia @DrSJaishankar @IndianAmbAnkara @CGI_Istanbul @IndianDiplomacy pic.twitter.com/AFkO6tJA0A

— India in Turkey (@IndianEmbassyTR) October 22, 2019

The development comes after India decided to give a cold shoulder to its ties with Turkey after Istanbul backed Pakistan over the Kashmir issue at the United Nations General Assembly session last month and at the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) meet in Paris earlier this month.

The relations between the two countries touched a new low as Prime Minister Narendra Modi cancelled a two-day official visit to Ankara scheduled for October-end.

PM Modi’s trip to Ankara would have been his first stand-alone visit to Turkey. He was to have proceeded to Turkey from Saudi Arabia, where he is going on October 27-28 to attend a mega investment summit.

Modi had last visited Turkey during the G20 in Antalya in 2015. He had held a bilateral with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Osaka, on the sidelines of the G20 in June this year. The Turkish leader had paid a two-day visit to India in July 2018.

However, Erdogan’s strong backing of Pakistan over the Kashmir issue has not gone down well with New Delhi.

In his speech at UNGA, Erdogan had alleged that “eight million people are stuck” in Kashmir due to the revocation of Article 370, that gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir.

India termed the statements as biased and called upon the Turkish government to get a proper understanding of the situation on the ground before they make any further statements on the issue.

MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar further asserted that Kashmir issue is India’s internal matter.