Turkey ready to start negotiations with Pakistan for PTA

ANKARA (Web Desk) – Turkey has expressed willingness to start negotiations with Pakistan for the Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA). Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu expressed his country’s readiness while talking to Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs Andleeb Abbas on the sidelines of ECO Council Foreign Ministers Moot. The two sides also agreed to give practical shape at the earliest to the idea envisaged collectively by Pakistan, Turkey and Malaysia to establish a TV channel to promote true and positive image of Islam and counter propaganda against it. The Turkish foreign minister admired Pakistan’s efforts for highlighting blatant human rights in Indian Occupied Kashmir (IoK) at the international level. He assured his country’s every possible cooperation to Pakistan in this regard. On October 20, Indian Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi has cancelled his two-day official visit to Turkey after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan openly raised occupied Kashmir issue at UNGA and supported Pakistan’s stance on Occupied Kashmir. It is pertinent to mention here that Modi was scheduled to depart on a two-day official visit to Ankara at the end of this month (October) following visit to Saudi Arabia, where he is going on October 27-28 to attend a mega investment summit. Erdogan raised the Kashmir issue at the UNGA and also backed Pakistan at the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) meet in Paris. Erdogan’s strong backing of Pakistan on Kashmir and highlighting widespread human rights violations during his speech at the UN General Assembly last month has not gone down well with India. In response to this, the Indian government has cancelled a two-day official visit to Ankara by Modi in the backdrop of Erdogan’s UNGA speech. The decision to cancel the visit to Turkey marks a low in relations between New Delhi and Ankara, which have never been very warm. Modi had last visited Turkey during the G20 in Antalya in 2015. He had held a bilateral with Erdogan in Osaka, on the sidelines of the G20 in June this year. The Turkish leader had paid a two-day visit to India in July 2018.