A Turkey-Afghanistan-Pakistan trilateral summit started in Istanbul on Friday with expectation to bring forth some concrete results and decisions.
Turkish President Abdullah Gul, Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari are expected to take decisions for setting up a direct video conference call system between their offices, launching a joint emergency exercise against natural disasters as well as establishment of a joint platform aiming to bring together scholars from the three countries, Xinhua reported.
A framework agreement aiming to enhance the capacity of the three countries to cooperate, as well as agreements for establishment of a Counter-Terrorism Excellency Center, cooperation between the police departments of the three countries and cooperation in counter-narcotics will also be signed during the meeting.
On the sidelines of the summit, the fifth one of its kind, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with the Afghan president, while Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, Afghan Foreign Minister Zalmay Rassoul and Pakistani Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi met over breakfast.
Since the tripartite mechanism was launched in 2007, an interior ministers meeting is also being held regularly, and foreign ministers and chambers of commerce of the three countries also meet on the sidelines of the summit.
A final declaration will be issued after the summit.
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