Pakistan, Afghanistan and Turkey while reiterating their determination to cooperate in the fight against terrorism and extremism in all its forms on Friday vowed to continue their co-operation and engagement at multiple tracks. The agreement to this effect was reached at the fifth Trilateral Summit meeting of President Asif Ali Zardari, Afghan President Hamid Karzai and President Abdullah Gul of Turkey here on Friday.
According to a joint statement issued after the Trilateral Summit meeting, the Presidents recalled that the Trilateral Summit Process has been providing an increasingly efficient and robust platform for taking forward multi-dimensional dialogue, co-operation and partnership among the three countries.
They underscored that the Process supplemented and added significant impetus to friendly relations among their countries, The President highlighted that increased contacts among the members of the parliaments, high-level military officials, directors of intelligence organisations, officials and experts, as well as business circles constitute yet another valuable outcome of the Trilateral Summit Process.
They stressed that the Trilateral Summit Process should be continued by fostering multi-dimensional trilateral co-operation in every field of joint interest including through public-private partnerships. They underlined the relevance of enhanced regional co-operation driven primarily by regional ownership, in tackling common challenges, as well as in maximising common benefits,
The Presidents recalled the mutually reinforcing linkage between security and development; and stressed the importance of sustained development as a strategic leverage in addressing common challenges that afflict many countries in their region. They reaffirmed that trans-regional development remained a key priority of the Trilateral Summit Process; and underlined their countries' critical geo-strategic location for peace, stability and development in the entire region.
The Presidents reiterating their determination to cooperate in their fight against terrorism, which constitutes a crime against humanity, and extremism in all its forms, including by effectively tackling its financial resources, declared the following:-
"1. This Trilateral Summit Process is truly representative of the deep rooted and brotherly ties of friendship and solidarity that are growing ever stronger among Afghanistan, Pakistan and Turkey. Improved co-operation between our countries nurtures our trilateral platform, which opens new prospects for broader and deeper co-operation. We will continue our co-operation and engagement at multiple tracks.
2. Our Trilateral Summit Process has come a long-way in building upon the strong foundations of our dialogue and co-operation. Today the Trilateral Summit Process among our countries covers a broad range of topics, benefits our peoples and allows increased contacts among our officials and business circles. These in turn strengthen the value-added brought by the Trilateral Process. We will continue to build on these in a progressive and determined manner.
3. We welcome the intention to hold the second joint meeting of the Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Commissions of Turkey, Afghanistan, and Pakistan after the new parliament in Afghanistan opens early next year.
4. Presidents of the Republic of Turkey and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan expressed their full support for President Karzai's roadmap and the Kabul process. Peace and reintegration in Afghanistan should be led and steered by the Government of Afghanistan. We will continue to extend our support to Afghanistan. We have noted President Karzai's update on the reconciliation process and extended our solidarity with the Afghan people in this vital effort.
The democratic development of our countries, security, stability and prosperity in and around our regions as well as our investments in our vast and vibrant human capital will only become stronger as we continue to respect and learn from each other and build on lessons learned and best practices. Investing in an auspicious future for our societies requires more and faster development and stronger institutional capacity building now. We will continue to strengthen our co-operation with this understanding.
We will continue to engage our relevant institutions, particularly in the field of development, training, education and institutional capacity building. In this context, we note the proposed initiation of an "Administrative Reform and Institutional Capacity Building Training Programme".
6. We lament the loss of lives and vast destruction in Pakistan as a result of the flash floods. Pakistan, with its proud people and time-tested resilience will no doubt overcome the challenges and continue its development in every way. The Turkish, Afghan and Pakistani peoples will continue to stand by one another whenever required. Pakistan gratefully acknowledges the generous flood relief assistance provided by the brotherly governments and peoples of the Republic of Turkey and the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.
We will build effective mechanisms to enhance trilateral co-operation for disaster management contingencies.
7. Security and intelligence constitutes an important dimension of the Trilateral Summit Process. Contacts between high-level military officials as well as intelligence experts contribute to our efforts to fight terrorism and extremism. This co-operation shall be continued and rendered even more result-oriented.
We note the fruitful meeting of the Chiefs of our Intelligence Services held in Istanbul prior to our Summit meeting on 2-3 December 2010.
We also hail the decision of our military authorities to hold the Trilateral Military Live Exercise on Urban Warfare in Istanbul on March/April 2011 which will concretely manifest the headway made in taking forward the military co-operation dimension of the Trilateral Summit Process that is against no other party. We are looking forward to a successful exercise, which will constitute a stepping stone for closer co-operation. A Distinguished International Visitors Day will be organised in course of the exercise.
As part of our security co-operation, training programs made available to joint participation, at, inter alia, Turkish training facilities will be re-invigorated and re-focused. Furthermore, joint training seminars and courses will be made available to counter-narcotics officers from Afghanistan and Pakistan at the Turkish International Academy Against Drugs and Organised Crime (TADOC).
8. Contacts among our private sectors under the umbrella of the Istanbul Forum will only be strengthened by investing in infrastructure, including in communications, commerce, transportation of passengers and goods by road, railways and airways, as well as energy.
The railway link between Turkey, Iran and Pakistan has been given significant emphasis and since its inauguration on August 14, 2009.We will continue to work towards improving the railway connection between Turkey and Pakistan and look forward to extending it to Afghanistan. We will also focus on progressively improving airway connections as well as increasing flight frequencies among our countries.
9. Dialogue, mutual trust and improved connections in every field are essential features of enhanced co-operation: "the Istanbul Statement of Friendship and Co-operation in the Heart of Asia" of 26 January 2010 has set out a viable and realistic vision to improve regional co-operation. We reaffirm our support to the principles and the shared vision enshrined therein. We will continue to build on the Istanbul Vision with further steps in the time ahead.
10. The Istanbul Statement has grown out of this trilateral forum. Following the same example we have decided today to lead the way in bringing ideas in the Istanbul Statement on "Friendship and Co-operation in the Heart of Asia by agreeing to establish among ourselves a trilateral direct video-telephone conference line in support of increased dialogue and communication; organise a table- top Disaster Response Simulation Exercise; establish a Trilateral Minds Platform composed of members of academia, media and thinks tanks; launch joint capacity building programs through co-operation among our relevant organisations with a view to promoting joint training dialogue and activities; establish a joint media platform; produce joint TV programs and organise a joint cultural exhibition to highlight commonalties as well as co-operation among countries and peoples.
11. We will continue our Trilateral Summit Process through annual Summit meetings. The Trilateral Summit Process will continue to be supported by Trilateral Foreign Ministers meetings and well as the Joint Working Group among Under secretaries of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs."
On the occasion of the Trilateral Summit, President Hamid Karzai and President Asif Ali Zardari also had comprehensive exchange of views with Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Turkey.
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