ISLAMABAD: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will pay an official visit to Pakistan on Oct 23 to cement relations between the two countries and to extend full support to Pakistan’s stance on the Kashmir issue.

Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday telephoned the Turkish president and said that Mr Erdogan would visit Pakistan “later this month”.

According to Prime Minister Office (PMO), Mr Khan telephoned the Turkish president to exchange views on recent developments and apprised the latter that Pakistan fully understood Turkey’s concerns relating to terrorism.

The PMO quoted the prime minister as saying: “As a country which has lost more than 70,000 lives due to terrorism and borne the burden of more than three million refugees for decades, Pakistan is fully cognisant of threats and challenges being faced by Turkey having lost 40,000 of its people to terrorism.”

The prime minister said that like always, Pakistan stood in full support and solidarity with Turkey.

“We pray that Turkey’s efforts for enhanced security, regional stability and peaceful resolution of the Syrian situation are fully successful,” he added.

About the forthcoming visit of the Turkish president to Pakistan, the prime minister said: “The government and the people of Pakistan are looking forward to accord a warm welcome to President Erdogan on his forthcoming visit to Pakistan later this month.”

On the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session, Pakistani, Turkish and Malaysian leaders met and decided to launch a joint international English language TV channel on the pattern of BBC.

Published in Dawn, October 12th, 2019