Kabul, January 25: A trilateral meeting between the presidents of Turkey, Afghanistan, and Pakistan will be held in Istanbul, a day before the city hosts a summit on Afghan security.
Monday’s trilateral meeting, which will bring together Turkey’s Abdullah Gul, Afghanistan’s Hamid Karzai, and their Pakistani counterpart Asif Ali Zardari, will be the first of its kind since the November 2009 presidential election in Afghanistan.
The three-way talks will be followed by a summit of Afghanistan’s neighboring countries in Istanbul on Tuesday, which will also be attended by the foreign ministers of China, Tajikistan, and the vice president of Turkmenistan.
Tehran has announced that Iranian Vice President Mohammad-Reza Rahimi will also attend the summit as the representative of the Islamic Republic.
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, US Special Envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke, and the Russian deputy prime minister are also expected to attend.
Both events will focus on determining what can be done to support Afghanistan’s security and stability. Ways to root out terrorism will also be discussed during the Tuesday summit.
The two gatherings come ahead of an international conference on Afghanistan in London on Thursday.
According to British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, the focus of the London summit will be security, economic development, and governance.
——Agencies