Joint Statement Adopted At The Conclusion Of The Second Trilateral Summit Held In İstanbul Among The Presidents Of The Islamic Republic Of Afghanistan, The Islamic Republic Of Pakistan And The Republic Of Turkey, İstanbul, 5 December 2008,
His Excellency Hamid Karzai, the President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, and His Excellency Asif Ali Zardari, the President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, visited İstanbul on 5 December 2008 at the invitation of His Excellency Abdullah Gül, the President of the Republic of Turkey.
The three Presidents, together with His Excellency Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Prime Minister of the Republic of Turkey, held cordial and fruitful talks on regional and international issues, and expressed their political will to expand and strengthen the scope of their cooperation within the framework of the trilateral Ankara Process, initiated on 30 April 2007.
During the meeting, Presidents Karzai and Zardari, mindful of the common future shared by their people, the commonality of interest of their countries, expressed satisfaction on increasing contacts and continuing cooperation in all areas between the two brotherly countries and their respective democratically elected governments, and committed themselves to continue their bilateral political dialogue in a structured and comprehensive way.
The three Presidents:
Reiterated their pledge to cooperate towards promoting security, stability, peace, and economic development in the region, with reference to the Ankara Declaration of 30 April 2007, the Joint Press Release of the Joint Working Group of 6 July 2007 and the Joint Declaration of 30 October 2008;
Re-affirmed the need to respect, preserve and support unity, territorial integrity, and sovereignty of all countries in the region as well as the need to uphold principles of non-intervention and non-interference in the internal affairs of other States;
Expressed their determination to strengthen trilateral cooperation to confront the scourge of terrorism in all its forms and manifestations in an effective manner. They welcomed the decision of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Afghanistan and Pakistan to develop a Joint Comprehensive Strategy for combating terrorism and strengthening bilateral cooperation;
Reiterated their full support and confidence to the Peace-Jirga and the Jirgagai as authentic, traditional and key processes for dialogue and enhanced cooperation between the two countries, and the promotion of peace in the region;
Expressed their support for the ongoing comprehensive process of constructive engagement between Afghanistan and Pakistan including security and counter-terrorism as well as initiatives taken by both sides to promote future perspectives for common development and regional and trans-regional economic/trade cooperation, including joint projects between Afghanistan and Pakistan in the energy, minerals, agriculture, manufacturing and other sectors, as well as to enhance physical connectivity, including road/rail links and communication links;
Welcoming the kind offer of Pakistan to host the next Regional Economic Cooperation Conference in Islamabad, expressed their appreciation for the progress achieved in the seventh meeting of the Afghanistan-Pakistan Joint Economic Commission, held in Kabul on 25-26 November 2008, including deliberations on trade, economic coordination, transit trade, Pakistan’s assistance for reconstruction in Afghanistan, health, education and cooperation between businessmen of the two countries;
Mindful that security, peace and development are interlinked, and bearing in mind that sustainable development depends on fostering diversified local productive capacity, especially by motivating the private sector and increasing trade and investment, and that socio-economic development is essential to bringing lasting stability, aware of the challenges posed by the global financial crisis;
Affirmed that the trilateral process would promote economic and trade cooperation between Afghanistan, Pakistan and Turkey and that the three countries will work to promote regional/trans-regional development cooperation and noted in this context the importance of the role played by the public and private sector companies and corporations;
Approved as a framework of cooperation the attached recommendations finalized by the Joint Working Group during its meeting on 4 December 2008, including:
· continuation of structured and comprehensive dialogue at different levels;
· trilateral military cooperation, including military training;
· enhanced security cooperation in counter-terrorism and counter-narcotics;
· energy projects;
· transport corridors;
· establishment of organized industrial zones in Afghanistan and Pakistan, utilizing complementarities wherever possible;
· various socio-economic projects on education, health and vocational training;
Expressed their support for the İstanbul Forum mechanism, comprising the apex organizations of the private sectors of the three countries, and their valuable work in tandem with the trilateral process, as well as welcoming the convening of the Forum session on 4 December 2008.
The Presidents of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan expressed gratitude for the initiative of Turkey for hosting the Second Summit Meeting and agreed to hold further meetings in 2009.
İstanbul, 5 December 2008
FRAMEWORK OF COOPERATION
FOR THE TRILATERAL PROCESS
Recommendations by the Joint Working Group
THE DEVELOPMENT DIMENSION
Continue work on the three projects selected by the İstanbul Forum:
Agribusiness focused Organized Industrial Zones.
Establishment of a business development centre.
Capacity development projects for chambers of commerce and industry.
Feasibility studies, especially in power generation and coal mining, marble extraction and finishing, livestock and dairy development, and irrigation and farming. The necessary funds may be sought from international development institutions such as the World Bank, UNDP, Islamic Development Bank, Asian Development Bank etc.
The launching of a Private Sector Development Program by the Union of Chambers and Stock Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB).
Establishment of an ¨Economic Development Institute¨ within the TOBB Economy and Technology University to employ experts from and to focus on the three countries; Within this framework, a consortium of universities from Turkey can provide postgraduate/PhD scholarships focusing on development issues.
The Turkish International Cooperation and Development Agency (TİKA) can establish a ¨Tripartite Project Unit¨ to include development experts from the three countries; special focus would be on mining, agriculture and livestock projects.
Workshops focused on road and rail transport to assess the present state and future potential of multidirectional transport activities, including routes through Central Asia.
Enhancing the technical capacity of the “Gems and Gemology Institute” in Peshawar with equipment and exploring its potential for a trilateral training institute.
Economic empowerment of women. Developing women´s enterprises through micro-financing, efficient production, packaging and marketing of goods through cooperation between the three countries, enabling joint introduction to foreign markets; initially, provision of technical support for the ¨training the trainers¨ in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Benefit from the Turkish experience of the Multiple Purpose Community Centres (ÇATOM) model in both countries.
Identification of feasible projects in social sectors such as education and health for the development of the local communities in remote and underdeveloped towns and villages, health projects periodically supported by Turkish doctors.
Regular meetings of tripartite expert groups from relevant departments (Energy, Education, Industry, Agriculture, Health, Tourism etc.) to find new areas of cooperation such as, development of livestock farms, infrastructure projects for remote areas etc.
Bringing together the representatives of investment promotion agencies of the three governments;
Encouraging the Turkish-Afghan and Turkish-Pakistani Business Councils to organize joint meetings to consider trilateral business opportunities;
Turkey will sponsor trilateral meetings on response to natural disasters between officials, and informative/training seminars by Turkish public organizations such as the General Directorate for Disaster Management.
THE DIALOGUE DIMENSION
Continuation of high level contacts at different levels within the framework of the trilateral process.
Explore the possibility of trilateral cooperation between media organizations of the three countries.
Meetings, seminars and training visits for the press organizations and members of the press of the three countries.
Encourage contacts between parliamentarians of the three countries. The Foreign Affairs Committee of the Turkish Grand National Assembly will host the first joint meeting in Turkey.
Ensure convening of the Joint Working Group at least once a year.
THE SECURITY DIMENSION
(COUNTER-TERRORISM AND COUNTER-NARCOTICS)
Trilateral military cooperation in mutually agreed areas.
Parties will consider the utilization of the various training courses for joint participation, offered by each other at relevant institutions for:
- Military training,
- Police training, including counter-narcotics,
- Training in counter-terrorism.
Ongoing courses including, at the Partnership for Peace (PfP) Training Center, Center of Excellence in Ankara for Defense Against Terrorism (CoE-DAT), and the Turkish International Academy Against Drugs and Organized Crime (TADOC) in Ankara.
Continuation of cooperation between intelligence agencies, including in the field of counter-terrorism.
Setting up of a trilateral mechanism in the field of counter-narcotics among relevant agencies.