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Qureshi confident of joint mechanism with Afghanistan, Turkey
İstanbul recently hosted a trilateral presidential summit with Afghanistan and Pakistan, the fourth such summit arranged by Turkey since April 2007. Today, İstanbul will be the venue for a meeting of the foreign ministers of the three countries ahead of a summit of a 20-member Asian security forum.
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu will gather with Zalmai Rassoul of Afghanistan and Qureshi of Pakistan, ahead of the two-day summit of the Conference on Interactions and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA), which will also kick off today.
Noting that today’s meeting will be part of the trilateral process between the “three brotherly countries,” Qureshi noted that he will host Rassoul, whom he has met with several times, in Islamabad later this month.
“The democratic government in Pakistan has transformed the country’s relations with Afghanistan. These relations are characterized by regular high-level contacts. The Afghan president visited Pakistan in September 2008 and in March 2010. [Pakistani] President Asif Ali Zardari also attended the inauguration ceremony of [Afghan] President [Hamid] Karzai in November 2009. Pakistan is carrying out reconstruction work in Afghanistan [totaling] $300 million. It has also offered 2,000 scholarships to Afghan students to study in Pakistani institutions. We enjoy very cordial relations with Afghanistan,” Qureshi told Today’s Zaman in a written statement ahead of his trip to İstanbul.
“We will continue to deepen and expand bilateral relations with Afghanistan in all fields. Achieving stability and peace in Afghanistan is in Pakistan’s strategic interest. There has been a tremendous increase in mutual trust and confidence between our two countries,” Qureshi said.
During the trilateral summits organized by Turkey, the two countries’ presidents were accompanied by their military and intelligence chiefs as they pledged to step up bilateral cooperation against extremists.
“Pakistan and Afghanistan are cooperating with each other in the fight against terrorism. We believe that terrorists are common enemies of both Afghanistan and Pakistan. The security establishments of the two countries, including intelligence officials, interact with each other regularly and frequently. The military officials are also engaged in the tripartite military commission. These meetings are held at the highest level,” Qureshi said.
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