D-8 summit: Trade talks likely to be overshadowed by Gaza

Iranian, Turkish, Egyptian leaders will be present at today’s summit session.

ISLAMABAD: Discussing trade between member states is supposed to be on top of the agenda for today’s (Thursday’s) D-8 leaders’ summit session. But with the presence of leaders from Iran, Egypt and Turkey, discussions at the D-8 summit are likely to be overshadowed by events in the Middle East, where Israeli airstrikes have so far claimed the lives of close to 150 Palestinians.

Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar, who chaired a meeting of D-8 foreign ministers on Wednesday to finalise the agenda for the summit, also hinted that the high-profile gathering would likely discuss the Middle East crisis.

Khar began her address at the Council of Ministers meeting by condemning “Israel’s aggression against the people of Palestine.” She added, “The innocent people of Gaza are in our thoughts and prayers, and Pakistan once again condemns Israel’s aggression against the people of Palestine.”

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Egyptian leader Mohamed Mursi and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan are amongst the leaders, who are attending the summit.

The D-8 countries signed a Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) in 2006 at the fifth Summit to gradually reduce tariffs on specific goods between member-states, with a supervisory committee overseeing the process.

Ahead of the summit, the D-8 foreign ministers discussed ways to bring PTA into effect as well as an agreement on the simplification of visa procedures for businessmen of member states and multilateral agreements on administrative assistance in customs matters.

Security concerns

Pakistan is using the D-8 summit to dispel fears of security concerns as this is the first such major international gathering in a decade.

Recently, a quadrilateral summit to be attended by leaders from Russia, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Tajikistan was postponed apparently due to security reasons.

“We hope that the D-8 summit helps to contribute towards Pakistan’s standing and it is a demonstration of the fact that leaders from around the world consider Pakistan to be an important place to host such important summits,” Foreign Minister Khar said.