President Erdoğan attends Türkiye-Azerbaijan-Pakistan Trilateral Summit

 

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan met with President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif of Pakistan during the Türkiye-Azerbaijan-Pakistan Trilateral Summit in Lachin, Azerbaijan.

“WE ARE FURTHER STRENGTHENING THE CONNECTION BETWEEN OUR COUNTRIES”

“We are three brotherly countries that flourish in a climate of common civilization built up on mutual respect and trust, and that share common ideals. We are further strengthening the connection between our countries, which have a combined population of 350 million and a combined economic growth of 1.5 trillion dollars,” President Erdoğan said. “I would like to stress that we lend support to every step taken to transform our unity into strategic partnership. Each day, the significance of the solidarity between our countries is increasingly revealed by the developments in our region. We now aspire for the region to become a hub of stability, prosperity, and development, following the liberation of Azerbaijani territories that had been under occupation for thirty years. I believe that the Lachin International Airport, which we inaugurated this morning, will significantly contribute to regional development and the integration with the world for which the region has been craving for years.”

“OUR HOPE IS THAT THE DECLARED CEASEFIRE BETWEEN PAKISTAN AND INDIA WILL EVOLVE INTO A LASTING PEACE”

President Erdoğan stated: “We hosted my treasured brother Mr. Shehbaz Sharif three days ago in Istanbul. We reviewed the ongoing engagements within the scope of the High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council. We agreed to further strengthen the deep-rooted historical and humanitarian relations between Türkiye and Pakistan. I hereby would like to express our pleasure over the termination of the Pakistan-India tension through ceasefire. I once again congratulate my brother Sharif and Pakistani authorities on the calm and wise stance they displayed throughout the process. Our hope is that the declared ceasefire will evolve into a lasting peace. Türkiye is ready to make any contribution it can in this regard.”

“AS TÜRKİYE, AZERBAIJAN AND PAKISTAN, WE WILL INSTITUTIONALIZE OUR COOPERATION”

“Our countries are located in a strategic zone at the Eurasian intersection,” President Erdoğan noted, adding: “In our geography and beyond, we confront many challenges simultaneously from security threats to economic bottlenecks, energy to food crises. We regard the enhancement of our solidarity and capacity for joint action in the face of challenges not as a choice, but as a necessity. With my esteemed brothers, we are today exchanging views on important issues to expand our trilateral cooperation. Our foreign ministers will carry out the necessary works in the upcoming period to institutionalize our trilateral cooperation, drawing up a solid framework reflecting our countries’ shared vision on our common agenda items such as trade, investments, transportation, energy, defense industry and anti-terror fight. As Türkiye, Azerbaijan and Pakistan, we will institutionalize our cooperation by holding trilateral summits and ministerial level meetings.”

President Erdoğan went on: “Deepening our cooperation in defense industry, we will preserve our shared determination in combatting terrorism and transnational threats. We will aim to take joint steps in facilitating trade, incentivizing investments, and digital transformation. In the area of transportation, which constitutes an extremely important aspect of our cooperation, we, together, will contribute to projects such as the Development Road, the Middle Corridor, and the North-South Transport Corridor. In the areas of culture and education, we will work on projects that will boost the interaction between our respective youth and academics. We will make joint use of the opportunities in energy security, food supply security, and renewable energy. In these areas, we will further expand our trilateral cooperation by implementing prestigious projects, and will offer new services for our peoples.” 

“WE CALL ON THE WORLD TO INCREASE PRESSURE ON THE ISRAELI ADMINISTRATION TO ENSURE A PERMANENT CEASEFIRE IN GAZA”

President Erdoğan continued: “We are witnessing that the international system is being increasingly dragged into a legitimacy crisis nowadays amid deepening polarization and increasing bloc-formation. The crisis the international system is currently experiencing is best exemplified by Israel’s never-ending massacres in Palestine and its expansionist policies. We are determined to continue defending the rights of the innocent children and people who were massacred in Gaza. I would like to re-emphasize that we will oppose any attempt at disrupting peace in our region. Our geography has had enough of blood and tears. We call on the world to increase pressure on the Israeli administration to ensure a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and to facilitate the urgent delivery of humanitarian aid.”