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Turkey, Pakistan to cement fraternity during Konya visit
During the joint visit by the two ministers, Konya, which is Davutoğlu's hometown, will be declared a sister city to the Pakistani city of Multan, which is Qureshi's hometown.
The Central Anatolian city of Konya is home to the museum and mausoleum of 13th century Sufi saint Mevlana Jelaluddin Rumi, who is well known in Pakistan. Multan, a part of southern Punjab, is known to be a combination of the old and the new Pakistani culture. Over the years, the city has been turned into a prosperous commercial and industrial center. It is an important road and rail junction, an agricultural center, and a market for textiles, leather goods and other products.
Back in 2007, the Konya Metropolitan Municipality arranged various cultural activities in Pakistan's cities of Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi. The focus of the activities, titled “Konya and Mevlana Days,” was the humanitarian vision of Mevlana. Davutoğlu attaches high importance to the cultural and historical aspect of diplomatic relations. During a visit to war-torn Afghanistan in June, he promised that Turkey would move at once to restore a house in the Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif that was once owned by the father of Mevlana.
The FoDP was launched in New York in September 2008 on the sidelines of a United Nations General Assembly session.
The founding member states of the FoDP included the UK, France, Germany, the US, China, the United Arab Emirates, Canada, Turkey, Australia and Italy plus the UN and the European Union. At the upcoming İstanbul meeting, a total of 20 member states and six international organizations are expected to be represented.
The İstanbul meeting aims to provide assistance to the Islamabad government in the fields of education, health, energy, economy and local administration while the main focus of assistance will be the fight against terrorism and the eventual maintenance of stability in Pakistan.
The Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges (TOBB) and the Foreign Economic Relations Board (DEİK) will jointly host a private sector meeting during the FoDP summit. More than 10 private companies from Pakistan will attend this meeting. Recalling the intense Turkish private sector activity in Pakistan, diplomatic sources highlight that such a private sector gathering will be important for encouraging investments, which will make a contribution to stability in Pakistan.
At the ministerial level of the meeting, the results of the private sector meeting and a pilot project for reconstruction in the Malakand region of the North-West Frontier Province as well as the prospects of public and private sector cooperation will be discussed.
During the last meeting of the FoDP, which took place in Tokyo in April under the chairmanship of Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, participants pledged $5.2 billion in assistance. Diplomatic sources underlined that most of this assistance was based on carrying out projects, thus the private sector's involvement in the reconstruction of the country was essential.
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