Turkey-Pakistan security dialogue held in Istanbul

ISTANBUL (AA) – A group of scholars from Turkey and Pakistan deliberated on regional security issues Tuesday in the Turkish metropolis of Istanbul.

In what is described as the first Turkey-Pakistan security dialogue, Professor Rabia Akhtar from the University of Lahore said the participants discussed how the regional security architecture shaped the foreign policies of the two countries.

The dialogue between Turkish and Pakistani scholars and practitioners will continue with different institutions in Istanbul until Friday.

Hizir Tarik Oguzlu, a political science teacher at Istanbul Aydin University, said Turkey has pursued a “much more dimensional foreign policy” since early 2000.

By strengthening its relations with Russia, he said, Turkey enjoyed “strategic autonomy,” but Turkey never said “goodbye to West. It is a member of NATO, is trying to become part of the EU and has more than half of its trade with this European bloc.”

Farhan Siddiqui, a Pakistani academic from Quaid-e-Azam University, noted trade, refugee issues, ethnic conflicts, social and national cohesion and national security as common issues between the two countries besides “democracy and democratization and making bridges with the rest of the world.”