IZMIR: The Fifth RCD Summit ended tonight [April 22] after deciding to establish a free trade area and an investment and development bank under a treaty which will redefine the three-nation alliance and place it on a legal basis. To be known as the “Treaty of Izmir”, it will embody RCD’s aims, modes of operation and organisational structure in the light of new regional requirements.

A declaration [was] issued here … at the end of the two-day summit by the Heads of State and Government of Iran, Turkey and Pakistan after taking into consideration the fact that significant changes have occurred in the world … specially in the region. … The Declaration said that the leaders of the three countries agreed that the text of the treaty be drafted “without delay”. Iranian Foreign Minister A.A. Khalatbari told reporters that the treaty would be signed within three months.

The proposal for RCD free trade areas was made by Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in his opening address to the summit yesterday [April 21]. The Declaration … said that Iran, Pakistan and Turkey would take steps to establish RCD free trade area “within a period of ten years”. — News agencies

Published in Dawn, April 23rd, 2026