Daily Times

The Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan concluded his two-day visit to Pakistan from 13 Feb to 14 Feb 2020. This was the fourth visit of Mr. Erdogen and the second visit to presidential capacity. The visit manifested the persistent strong ties between the two countries even after Pakistan missed the Kuala Lumpur Summit. Pakistan values this relation and displayed so by giving the Turkish President the honor to address the joint sitting of the Parliament for the fourth time. Historically, the relation of the two countries can be defined in terms of well-entrenched and deeply rooted. Both Pakistan and Turkey along with Iran were the founding members of Regional Cooperation for Development (RCD) formed in 1964 and later on enlarging its scope transformed it into Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) in 1985. Turkey has always stood with Pakistan at all testing times whether it was the 1965 war or the debacle of 1971, the brotherly country to Pakistan has always provided ample support to it. The same has been reciprocated by Pakistan.

The current visit has opened another chapter of strong ties between the two brotherly nations. Both have acknowledged the bright prospects of the economic, social, diplomatic and defense ties. In the context of economic ties, the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan observed in his address that Pakistan is on the trajectory of growth and prosperity, he said that the steps taken by the government of Pakistan to improve business and investment environment has made the country more attractive to the investors and therefore he has brought many investors and businessman with him to this tour. Currently, the economy of Pakistan is facing many challenges in the form of drying up of foreign reserves, high external and internal debts and the ever-increasing circular debt. All these factors and others have created hurdles in bringing stability to the economy.

At such a time of economic downfall, the country needs to explore all avenues to get the economy on the right track including the intensification of economic ties with brotherly nations. Turkey is one of those countries that faced roadblocks to its economic development in the past but due to its wise policies and stringent steps became successful to get a flourishing economy. In terms of GDP Turkey is the 19th largest economy. Furthermore, the World Bank has projected that Turkey is all set to join the trillion-dollar GDP group by 2023. Pakistan can seize this opportunity by getting lessons from the economic strategies of Turkey that are growth driven. Secondly, as per the aspirations of Prime Minister Imran Khan, and the interest was shown by the Turkish President, Turkey needs be made part of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), the government requires to make proper working space for the Turkish entrepreneurs and investors in it. CPEC is a win-win project for the whole region and whoever will join it will reap its fruit.

By engaging Turkish investors in this project, the economy of both will benefit. The two knowing the economic potential each other have signed 13 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and also approved a Strategic Economic Framework accompanying it a 71-point plan of action for its implementation. The Strategic Economic Framework aims at increasing the trade between the two from $800 million to $5 billion by 2023. The fields covered by the memorandums include standardization, conformity assessment, metrology and training, diaspora policy, development and facilitation of tourism, custom cooperation matters, railway and many more. Not only this but as Abdul Razak Dawood, Khan’s Adviser on Commerce and Investment, was cited by Anadolu Agency (AA) as saying that Pakistan and Turkey will begin negotiations to finalize the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in April, this free trade agreement if got finalized it will further enable both to make their dream of bringing trade and economic cooperation to new heights a reality.

All these fields of cooperation if are seriously tapped and if practical steps are taken in this regard it will lead to a breakthrough in the already burgeoning economic ties. On one hand, through these initiatives, Pakistan will be able to get its sinking economy to the shore of growth. On the other hand, Turkey will be able to achieve its goal of getting into the trillion-dollar GDP group at a faster pace.

In terms of social ties, both countries have strong fraternal relations. The love and empathy towards each other were in existence from the Pre-partition period that increased after Partition. The people to people ties have always been strong due to religious and cultural similarities. Currently, the Pak Turk education system is working in Pakistan and every year many students are accommodated by the student exchange programme. The need is to bolster these ties by providing visas at airport facilities and by boosting the tourism industry. The defence ties of both the country are well entrenched this can be evaluated from the High-Level Cooperation Council established in 2009 that was upgraded to the High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council. The sixth joint session of the council was held on the current visit of the Turkish president at which the two sides agreed to expand the scope of the HLCC, which previously had seven joint working groups focusing on political coordi¬nation; trade and invest¬ment; energy; banking and finance; transport and communications; culture and tourism; and education. HLCC has now got two new groups on defence industry cooperation and water and agriculture.

The diplomatic support of both the countries for each other has also remained unwavering. The same can be seen from the current visit during which the Turkish President vowed to support Pakistan at the FATF meeting and also raised the Kashmir issue. This is a welcome notion as Pakistan is currently in a quandary in both these cases. Hence, the edifice of Pak Turk relations is based on strong foundations but to further strengthen it both countries need to take practical steps in the realm of economic, social, defence and diplomatic cooperation.

The writer is a Lawyer.