THE bonds of friendship amongst Pakistan, Turkey and Azerbaijan are unshakeable. The three countries have always openly and in unambiguous terms fully supported each other on important international matters. Whilst Turkey and Azerbaijan have always unequivocally supported Pakistan’s stance on Kashmir dispute, Pakistan has also been at the forefront in fully backing Azerbaijan on Nagorno-Karabakh and Turkey on Cyprus issue.
The Foreign Ministers of the three countries sat together for the second trilateral meeting in Islamabad on Wednesday and also signed a declaration vowing to deepen cooperation in all the areas of mutual interest including political, strategic, trade, economic, peace and security, science and technology and cultural fields. Indeed this is a welcome development to take the close relationship to the next level. Given the goodwill and unanimity of views that exists amongst these countries, there is a need to take practical and concrete steps in order to transform this relationship into a mutually beneficial and robust economic partnership. It is only through developing our economies that we, the Muslim countries, can resolve most of our challenges and emerge as the global leaders and decision makers, In fact Pakistan, Turkey and Azerbaijan can greatly take advantage of each other’s experience especially in the field of science and technology, industries, agriculture and defence production. To unleash the potential of cooperation, there is need to further enhance the level of engagements amongst the three countries at different levels. Especially the top leadership should remain in touch more constantly in order to monitor the progress on the agreements reached to bolster cooperation. The decisions taken at the trilateral meeting including that of developing a robust action plan to ease duties and do away with tariff and non-tariff barriers must be vigorously pursued. The three countries should specifically focus on establishing and further strengthening aerial, rail and road links to promote trade and economic relations. We also need to enhance our linkages through parliamentary and media exchanges as well as collaboration amongst our think tanks, artistes and tourists will also go a long way to further bring the peoples of three countries closer to each other.
