PAKISTAN and Turkiye share a historically deep-rooted, strategic partnership which is gen-erally dubbed as “Two States, One Nation”. Their relationship was anchored by strong de-fence collaboration such as joint naval warship projects and military exercises, extensive cultural and religious affinity and a Preferential Trade Agreement signed in August 2022 to boost bilateral economy. Bilateral relations between the two brotherly Islamic countries can easily be categorized falling in the domains of Institutional Cooperation, Defence and Security, Economic and Trade Relations and Cultural and People-to-People ties.
These relations were further bolstered, promoted and strengthened when Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif paid his another official, short but quite hectic visit to Turkiye at the invitation of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. He had reached Istanbul and accorded warm welcome from Tehran where he had gone to offer personal condolences to the people and leadership of Iran over assassination of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on the first day of the ongoing USA-Israel coalition unwarranted attack on Iran which had endangered the peace and stability of the Middle East region, most unfortunately, for pretty long time.
PM Shehbaz Sharif held bilateral talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, ad-dressed a joint press conference and met senior executives of Turkiye’s leading business groups before returning to Islamabad after visiting Iran and Turkiye. This was his fourth visit to Turkiye and 44th foreign visit since assuming office in March 2024, reflecting Pakistan’s focus on economic diplomacy, foreign investment and stronger global partnerships. During their discussions, the two leaders pledged to elevate their strategic partnership, achieve $5 billion in bilateral trade through expanded economic engagement and deepen cooperation in trade, investment, energy and defence.
Addressing a joint press conference after delegation-level talks, PM Shehbaz Sharif declared that Turkiye’s success was Pakistan’s success and reaffirmed Islamabad’s resolve to deepen its unique partnership with Ankara. Describing the two countries as “two hearts, one soul,” he said their enduring friendship was rooted in shared history, common faith and mutual sacrifice. He recalled Turkiye’s unwavering support during wars, earthquakes and devastating floods, expressed satisfaction over growing trade and industrial cooperation, reaffirmed Pakistan’s support for the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus and thanked Turkiye for its steadfast backing of the people of Jammu and Kashmir.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said the two leaders reviewed bilateral, regional and global developments with a strong focus on expanding economic cooperation and reaffirmed Tur-kiye’s continued solidarity with Pakistan. He said both countries were working to establish a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Karachi for Turkish businesses while negotiations were underway to expand the Pakistan-Turkiye Preferential Trade Agreement. Expressing confidence that the Pakistan-Turkiye Business-to-Business (B2B) Conference would strengthen investment and commercial ties, he highlighted defence cooperation as a cornerstone of bilateral relations, with new joint projects further reinforcing the strategic partnership.
During his meeting with senior executives of Turkiye’s leading business groups and industry organizations, PM Shehbaz Sharif invited them to increase their investment in Pakistan across a wide range of sectors and reaffirmed Pakistan’s commitment to expanding economic cooperation with Turkiye and also attracting more Turkish investment in key areas of the national economy. The PM’s visit to Turkiye was short and hectic but still it had turned out to be quite productive in more than one way and the strategic partnership between the two brotherly countries was certainly and surely going to be further promoted, strengthened and deepened in a mutually beneficial manner much sooner than anyone would be imagining to say the least.
—The writer is Lahore-based columnist and retired Deputy Controller (News), Radio Pakis-tan, Islamabad ([email protected])
