NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen and US Defense Secretary Robert Gates are among participants at the meeting hosted by Turkish Defense Minister Vecdi Gönül.
Just a day before the meeting in İstanbul, the US administration strongly praised Turkey’s efforts in Afghanistan, with US Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Ambassador Richard Holbrooke calling Turkey “a very important figure in the region.”
Recalling that he had had extensive discussions on Afghanistan with Turkish President Abdullah Gül, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, Holbrooke highlighted that Ankara and Washington have been engaged in constant dialogue on the issue.
“We have parallel interests. Turkey is, of course, a NATO member and a key member of ISAF [International Security Assistance Force, a NATO-led international force in Afghanistan] and one of the PRTs [provincial reconstruction teams] is a Turkish PRT. The Turks have done some extremely valuable work in fields like agriculture, where they built the first cold storage facility since the end of the war. A very important issue, I might add, because agriculture is so important and without cold storage everything rots. And we have the highest respect and attach the greatest importance to deepening our cooperation with Turkey and it gives me a chance to thank the Turkish government and the Turkish people for their support and involvement,” Holbrooke said.
“I can think of no country in the ISAF alliance that has a role that is more important than Turkey’s in terms of operations inside Afghanistan,” he added.
