High-Level Turkish Delegation Visiting Islamabad Next Week

A high-level delegation from Turkiye is set to arrive in Islamabad next week to discuss rising tensions between Pakistan and the Taliban regime and to explore a peaceful way forward.

This was stated by the Turkiye Ambassador to Pakistan, Dr Irfan Neziroglu, on Friday at a reception to celebrate Oman’s National Day, hosted by Ambassador Fahad Sulaiman Khalaf Al-Kharusi.

The planned visit was first disclosed earlier this month by Turkiye President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during his meeting with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in Baku.

Talks between Pakistan and Afghanistan in Istanbul ended this month without any agreement amid the Kabul government's reluctance to act against terrorist groups operating from its soil.

Dr Neziroglu, who had played an active role in facilitating the Istanbul trilateral talks on Afghanistan, said the delegation visiting Pakistan will also be accompanied by the Turkish intelligence chief and important ministers. Turkish Minister for Energy Alparslan Bayraktar will also be visiting Islamabad next week as part of the delegation.

Neziroglu said that Istanbul was keen to see that no one should come from Afghan soil for terrorism and bloodshed on the soil of Pakistan. “Both countries should live like brothers. Turkiye is determined to make it possible.”

Islamabad-Kabul tensions

The tensions between the two neighbouring nations escalated when the Taliban forces and India-backed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), also known as Fitna al-Khawarij, resorted to an unprovoked attack on Pakistan on October 12.

The Pakistan Armed Forces gave a befitting response to the aggression, killing over 200 Afghan Taliban and affiliated militants in a self-defence action.

The military's media wing, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), said that 23 soldiers embraced martyrdom in the clashes with the Taliban forces and the terrorists.

Furthermore, the security forces also conducted “precision strikes” in Afghanistan’s Kandahar province and the capital Kabul, as well as in the border areas of North and South Waziristan districts, successfully destroying multiple strongholds in response to the aggression.

The two sides had agreed on a temporary ceasefire during the Doha talks on October 19 and later held several meetings in Istanbul, with Pakistan aiming to devise a mechanism to stop cross-border terrorism emanating from Afghan soil.

The Istanbul talks could not deliver the desired results due to stubbornness from the Afghan side, as Kabul used the Istanbul talks to malign Pakistan rather than address Islamabad's core concern of terrorism emanating from Afghan soil.