Türkiye’s top officials to visit Pakistan next week: Erdogan

Tensions with Afghanistan

ANKARA: Türkiye’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, Defence Minister Yasar Guler, and intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin will visit Islamabad next week to discuss tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistan, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday.

He made the announcement while speaking to reporters on his flight returning from Azerbaijan.

Talks between Pakistan and Afghanistan, which were taking place in Istanbul in the presence of mediators, broke down on Friday without any agreement, as negotiators failed to bridge deep differences over how to monitor and prevent cross-border terrorism, officials and sources said.

Defence Minister Khawaja Asif insisted that the negotiations were “over” and had “entered an indefinite phase”.

“Right now, as we speak, negotiations are over,” Asif told a private TV channel, alleging that the Afghan Taliban delegation again came to Istanbul “without any programme” and was unwilling to sign a written agreement.

A senior security source confirmed that discussions had hit an impasse. “The talks in Istanbul are deadlocked,” he said.

However, it is understood that a fragile ceasefire between the two countries is still holding. The defence minister also said that the truce stands for the time being but warned that the “moment there is a ceasefire violation from their side, we will respond befittingly”.

The third round of Pakistan-Afghanistan talks began on Thursday in Istanbul and was planned to continue for two days. Pakistan’s delegation, led by Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Director General Lt Gen Asim Malik, included senior military, intelligence and Foreign Office officials. Monitoring Desk