Istanbul: The sixth trilateral summit to find a peaceful and
everlasting solution of the Afghanistan issue will be held here today
(Tuesday).
The opening remarks will be made by Turkish president
Abdullah Gul, followed by the address by PAkistan President Asif Ali
Zardari, and Afghan president Hamid Karzai.
President Asif Ali
Zardari arrived in Istanbul on Sunday at the invitation of Turkish
President Abdullah Gul to participate in the summit .
Zardari
is being accompanied by Defence Minister Ahmad Mukhtar and Interior
Minister Rehman Malik to attend the summit, which is being hosted by
Turkey.
The President will hold bilateral talks with Turkish President besides participating in the trilateral summit.
Chief
of General Staff of the Turkish Armed Forces General Necdet Ozal will
participate in a session regarding the Turkey-Afghanistan-Pakistan
trilateral meeting among the highest level military officials from the
three countries.
The trilateral summit will be followed by
‘Istanbul Conference for Afghanistan’ being held on November 2, which
will be attended by Foreign Ministers of 14 neighbouring countries of
Afghanistan, representatives of other countries and international
organizations.
The Afghanistan-Pakistan-Turkey trilateral
process was launched in April 2007 and the subsequent Trilateral Summits
were hosted by Turkey in December 2008, April 2009, January 2010 and
December 2010. Online
