ISTANBUL: Afghanistan, Pakistan and Turkey will hold joint military exercises next year as part of Ankara’s efforts to bring its two neighbours closer.
“As a result of the work that our armed forces have done so far, a joint exercise will be held in April 2011,” Turkish President Abdullah Gul said in televised remarks.
Gul was speaking after trilateral talks with his counterparts Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan and President Asif Ali Zardari in Istanbul.
It was the fifth such meeting since 2007 when Turkey, NATO’s sole Muslim-majority member, launched the initiative to push Afghanistan and Pakistan to enhance cooperation against Islamist insurgents and improve ties poisoned by the insecurity plaguing their rugged border.
Relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan have been plagued by mutual suspicion, although bilateral ties have recently improved.
Taliban fighting the Western-backed government in Kabul have rear bases in Pakistan, where Afghan and US officials say their leaders enjoy at least some measure of protection from Pakistan. Islamabad flatly denies any collusion and says more than 2,420 of its soldiers have been killed fighting militants since 2002.
