Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif arrived on Wednesday on a three-day official visit to Turkey.
Idris Güllüce, Turkish Minsiter for Environment and Urban Planning, Burhan Kayatürk, Chairman of Turkey-Pakistan Parliamentary Friendship Group in the Turkish Grand National Assembly and other high ranking officials welcomed the Pakistani Prime Minister at the Ankara Esenboga Airport.
Nawaz Sharif will represent Pakistan in the 8th Afghanistan-Pakistan-Turkey Trilateral Summit along with President Hamid Karzai and President Abdullah Gul. The Trilateral Summit Process provides a unique platform for furthering high level political dialogue, security cooperation and development partnership among the three brotherly countries for promoting peace and stability in Afghanistan.
Defence Minister Khawaja Asif, Advisor to Prime Minister on National Security and Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz, Special Assistant to PM on Foreign Affairs Tariq Fatemi, Chairman Board of Investment Miftah Ismail Ahmad, parliamentarians and other high ranking military and civil officials are accompanying Nawaz.
He will also visit Istanbul and shall meet with leading Turkish businessmen/investors.
Meetings with the heads of Turkish companies are also scheduled.
Meanwhile, Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Raheel Sharif has also left for Turkey on a two-day official visit to take part in the summit.
According to an ISPR spokesman, the COAS will also hold bilateral meetings with Turkish Chief of General Staff (CGS) and Land Forces Commander.
The Ankara Trilateral Summit will discuss regional security matters in the backdrop of US withdrawal from Afghanistan.
The 8th Turkey-Afghanistan-Pakistan Summit will be held in Ankara on Thursday (today).
‘Sustainable Peace in the Heart of Asia’ is the theme of the summit. It is taking place against a backdrop of important political and security transitions in Afghanistan, with the withdrawal of NATO/ISAF forces by the end of this year and including presidential and provincial elections on April 5.
Both Afghanistan and Pakistan are in dialogue with the Taliban. Commentators believe that the Taliban will be playing a key role in war or peace in Afghanistan and Pakistan following the withdrawal of U.S. led NATO forces in Afghanistan.
The trilateral summit between Turkey, Afghanistan and Pakistan was initiated by Turkey in February 2007 when Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul visited Pakistan and said that they were are all brothers who needed to support each other in order to bring security and stability to the region.
In 2009, Afghanistan and Pakistan pledged to increase coordination between their political, military and intelligence institutions to fight terrorism in the region as part of the trilateral Ankara cooperation process.
The military and intelligence chiefs of Afghanistan and Pakistan had met for the first time during that summit.
The trilateral summits between Pakistan, Turkey and Afghanistan have found some common ground between Islamabad and Kabul, however they have also served to highlight their continued distrust.
In September 2011, Chief Afghan Peace Negotiator and former Afghan president Burhanuddin Rabbani was assassinated by the Taliban.
The assassination created a serious mistrust between Afghanistan and Pakistan while Afghanistan accused Pakistan of being involved in the assassination. In the trilateral summit of 2011, Afghanistan urged Pakistan to take concrete steps to curb militants who posed a threat for both countries.
Three agreements were signed during the trilateral summit. An agreement on joint military training and exercises between the militaries of Turkey, Afghanistan and Pakistan was signed by Chiefs of Staff of the three countries.
The last summit was held in December 2012 in Ankara.
