Trilateral summit: Charting the future in a city of history

On eve of key talks, Zardari says Pakistan looking to start new relations with US.

ISTANBUL:

On the eve of the tripartite summit in Istanbul, President Asif Ali Zardari who is also in attendance, told a Turkish newspaper that he was looking forward to a new chapter of relations with the United States and that Pakistan’s commitment in the war against terrorism should not be questioned by its allies.

In an interview published on the front page of Turkish newspaper Hurriyet, President Asif Ali Zardari said that Pakistan had suffered great losses in the fight against terrorism.

“We have lost our great leader and my wife Shaheed Benazir Bhutto at the hands of terrorists. No one should question our commitment or intentions in fighting the war,” the president said.

Zardari is also due to meet his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai for the first time after the assassination of former Afghan President and High Peace Council leader Burhanuddin Rabbani on the eve of talks with Turkish President Abdullah Gul.

Presidents of the three countries meet on Tuesday (today) in talks that the hosts, the Turkish government, believe could end a blame game over a series of attacks that have deepened mutual mistrust between the US, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Noting a deteriorating regional environment, a Turkish official said: “Now is perhaps the time to try to reverse the course.”

“We sense that they (Afghanistan and Pakistan) have a genuine wish to talk to each other because they realise this trend is not helping either of them,” the official said before the summit of the three presidents.

Significantly, Army Chief General Ashfaq Kayani will also meet his Afghan counterpart on the sidelines of the summit.

The meeting is specifically designed to develop further cooperation and dialogue between Afghanistan and Pakistan, said Turkey’s foreign ministry spokesperson Selcuk Unal.

The president, who was scheduled to meet his Turkish counterpart on Monday, also answered media questions before the meeting. Speaking about strained relations with the US, Zardari said he was looking forward to a new chapter with the US, saying the Osama bin Laden issue was “history”.

“We should look forward into the future and ensure that the militant mindset is defeated. The sooner we stop the public criticism and finger-pointing and coordinate our resources, the better it will serve the cause of peace and stability and the fight against extremism and militancy,” Zardari said.

In reply to another question, the president gave a brief history lesson to the media, saying that the international community had created militants in Afghanistan to defeat the Soviet Union, but abandoned the region soon after the mission was accomplished, leaving Pakistan at the mercy of these militants.

“This is a historical fact. The international community owes it to Pakistan to support it in the fight against the militant mindset,” Zardari added.

The US will join Pakistan and other key players in Turkey on Wednesday, a day after the Turkey-Pakistan-Afghanistan talks, to chart Afghanistan’s future after Western troops depart.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar will be among the senior diplomats from 20 countries joining representatives from aid organisations at the talks in Istanbul almost exactly 10 years since the Taliban were driven out of power in Kabul.

The Istanbul conference is intended to map out Afghanistan’s future with the US-led Nato mission already locked into troop drawdowns that are scheduled to bring all foreign combat troops home by 2014.(With additional input from agencies)

Published in The Express Tribune, November 1^st, 2011.