ANKARA: Pakistan‚ Turkey and Afghanistan have agreed to continue joint efforts to promote peace and stability in the region.
The agreement came at the 18th trilateral summit in Ankara attended by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif‚ Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
In a joint statement after the summit‚ the three leaders said that they held fruitful and comprehensive talks on regional and international security issues at a time when the Heart of Asia is going through a decisive period for the future.
The three leaders pledged to continue close consultations to support the peace and reconciliation process in Afghanistan.
Earlier‚ addressing a joint news conference in Ankara the three leaders expressed satisfaction over the outcome of the Summit.
The Pakistani premier reiterated his country’s strong and sincere commitment for peace and reconciliation in Afghanistan through an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned peace process.
Sharif said that Afghanistan today is at a defining moment in its history and all the Afghans should come together to make peace and rebuild their country. He said that Pakistan would continue to facilitate the peace process for a peaceful Afghanistan.
The prime minister said that together we are working to build a new chapter in Pakistan-Afghanistan relations.
Sharif appreciated Turkey’s support for building sustainable peace in the heart of Asia. He said that Pakistan and Turkey are bound in a fraternal relationship that has few parallels in inter-state relations.
The Afghan president said that his country has a very important year ahead in which a complete transition to Afghan security forces and withdrawal of international forces are taking place‚ besides presidential elections to be held in April.
Karzai said that Afghanistan is committed to the trilateral dialogue and expressed the confidence that the next Afghan President would be following the process. He expressed the hope that as this process moves forward it would unfold a result for both Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Turkish President Abdullah Gul said that all the three countries are jointly striving to maintain peace in the region. He said that the summit was aimed at carrying the existing multi-dimensional collaboration between the three countries‚ which took its strength from their historic and deep-rooted amity‚ to the future in a stronger way.
