Daily Times Editorial Dec 14, 2012

Ankara trilateral moot The trilateral meeting between the presidents of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Turkey in Ankara has yielded much mutual bonhomie. The three presidents’ joint statement released after the meeting reiterated their determination to address security challenges affecting the region. They also signed a trilateral Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on economic and commercial cooperation. In addition, they underlined the importance of connectivity amongst people, institutions, infrastructures and economies. One example of such connectivity is the recently established hotline among the presidential offices. The joint statement emphasised the common challenge of combating terrorism, extremism and narcotics trafficking, the last having emerged in recent years as a major financier of terrorism. All these afflictions pose a serious threat to regional peace, security and stability. The statement strongly denounced the recent terrorist attack on Afghan National Directorate of Security chief Asadullah Khalid and Malala Yousafzai. The attack on Khalid had raised the temperature between Islamabad and Kabul when Afghan President Hamid Karzai alleged that the planning for the attack had taken place in Pakistan. The host, Turkish President Abdullah Gul, characterised the attack as the handiwork of forces that wanted to spoil relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan, fulfilling thereby and through his mediation between the two brother countries the hopes residing in this meeting to overcome Kabul’s suspicions. That does mean that the attack may not have emanated from Pakistani soil, only that there are enough ‘spoilers’ in our country who may wish to see the current moves towards a solution of the Afghan quagmire thwarted. If so, this implies that our military establishment and intelligence agencies may no longer have, if they ever did, total control over their erstwhile Afghan jihadi protégés, some of whom have arguably slipped the leash in the context of Afghan Taliban internal dissension on the response to the peace initiative in Afghanistan. It was agreed that a joint working group of Afghanistan and Pakistan would address the issue of the attack on Khalid. In addition to smoothing frayed nerves in Kabul and Islamabad and providing a mechanism for mutual cooperation on the incident, the trilateral moot underlined the importance of a regional political dialogue to thrash out problems and move the process of economic cooperation along. On the latter, the meeting included in the MoU the setting up of a Trilateral Trade Council to enhance economic exchange amongst the three countries through a preferential trade agreement that would boost trade, the target for Pakistani-Turkish trade being set at at least $ 2 billion a year, which may still seem like a modest goal, given the enormous trade potential of Turkey’s growing economy. Bilaterally, President Asif Ali Zardari and President Abdullah Gul exchanged notes on early implementation of joint projects, with the Gul Train intended to link by rail Pakistan and Turkey taking pride of place as a further example of the desired goal of connectivity. Needless to say, the immense potential of a rail link between Pakistan and Turkey cannot be exaggerated, given its potential to go on and facilitate movement of goods onwards into Europe. President Zardari, as he is wont to do whenever he travels abroad, invited Turkish investment in various sectors, including infrastructure, housing, engineering, agriculture, telecommunications, mining and energy. Ironically, on the last sector, there has been considerable embarrassment because of the Supreme Court’s (SC) striking down the Rental Power (RPP) projects totally, including the ship-mounted Karkey RPP. The SC was persuaded that the RPPs, an interim measure to address the country’s energy crisis until other forms of electricity production could be built, were non-transparent (hinting at corruption). As it turned out however, no charges of corruption could be proved. However, the SC’s wisdom in throwing the RPPs baby out with the bathwater of desired transparency has resulted in friction between the Turkish company and Pakistan. The judiciary is once more advised to exercise restraint and keep the interests of the country and its foreign relations in view when handing down such verdicts. Be that as it may, despite this setback, Pak-Turk relations are strong enough to weather this storm in a teacup and emerge closer and more cooperative than ever, as the Ankara moot has indicated.