The Turkish connection

At a time when Pakistan needs all the friends it can get, Turkey stands out as one with which we have had diplomatic relations since soon after Partition, and an economic and strategic relationship that is almost as long. It is thus appropriate that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on the invitation of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has made an official visit to Turkey early in his tenure. Turkey has had an occasionally troubled political history but has emerged as a key ‘bridge’ state between the East and the West, Europe and Asia, and has quietly but deftly played a notable role as an honest broker in some of the conflicts attendant on the aftermath of the Arab Spring. It has faced its own problems with terrorism and extremist elements and has largely and successfully worked through them by a variety of means. Nawaz Sharif has acknowledged that in the course of his visit, saying that Pakistan would seek the help and guidance of Turkey to better advance our own efforts to combat what has become a pervasive threat both to internal stability and external relations.



A raft of agreements and MoUs has been signed that bode well for future cooperation. Cooperation in trade, infrastructure (the Turks had a significant input to the Lahore Metro bus project) and security as well as collaborative efforts to enhance regional peace signal further deepening of an already solid partnership. The control of cybercrime and tackling radicalisation through education are also areas where Pakistan and Turkey can have a fruitful relationship. The Turkish interior minister commented that radicalism and extremism could not be countered by force alone, and that social reform and education were vital to the process — areas where Pakistan has been notably deficient, indeed backward. Nawaz assured the Turkish prime minister that Pakistan would not be laggardly in the implementation of the agreements both had signed up to, possibly an allusion to past failures on the part of Pakistan to deliver on its end of a deal. Turkey is a key ally and not just a fair-weather friend and will be there far into the future, a foreign-policy thread well worth the effort of nurturing.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 19^th, 2013.

Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.