Turkey-Afghanistan-Pakistan trilateral summit held in Ankara

The seventh Turkey-Afghanistan-Pakistan Trilateral Summit was organized at the Cankaya Presidential Palace in Ankara on Wednesday, during which Pakistani and Afghan delegations that came to Turkey for the summit were led by their countries' presidents, Asif Ali Zardari and Hamid Karzai, respectively. As part of the summit program, Gul separately welcomed Karzai and Zardari, and then Gul and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had a tete-a-tete with Presidents Karzai and Zardari. Speaking at the summit meeting, Gul said that foundations of dialogue and cooperation have been strengthened thanks to the summit and that trilateral cooperation would contribute to regional stability. Stating that the theme of this year's summit is connectivity, Gul said, "We need to take steps to remove distances, and take measures to serve the development of our economic, commercial, political and cultural relations. In terms of our economic activities, establishing the necessary physical infrastructure particularly in the field of transportation will make the greatest contribution to development of our countries." Following the summit, Gul, Karzai and Zardari held a joint press conference, during which Gul emphasized the cooperation between the three countries in fighting against terrorism and pointed to the close collaboration in such areas as border security, intelligence sharing and military training between the relevant departments of the three countries.  Reiterating that they reaffirmed the trust between the three countries during their talks as part of the summit, Gul expressed hope that all the security problems between Afghanistan and Pakistan will be solved through dialogue and that security, prosperity, stability as well as the economic cooperation will prevail in the whole of the region. Gul also extended his thanks to Presidents Zardari and Karzai for trusting Turkey in this respect. Responding to a question from a reporter about the role played by Turkey in the peace process in Afghanistan, Gul pointing to the bilateral and trilateral meetings between the relevant agencies and officials yesterday as well as today, and stressed Turkey's facilitating contributions in the country. For their parts, Karzai and Zardari extended their thanks to Gul for welcoming them. Zerdari said that the two countries enjoyed an extensive level of communication in terms of politics, and that there have never been such friendly meetings between Afghanistan and Pakistan. For his part, Karzai said that they should show the entire world that they would not be hindered by any force in the course of establishing their own nation and that peace should be established in Pakistan to ensure peace in Afghanistan as well. After the statements of the three presidents, a memorandum of understanding on the economic and trade cooperation was signed by the governments of Turkey, Afghanistan and Pakistan.