Pakistan PM to visit Turkey for strategic cooperation meeting

Islamabad Feb 21 (IANS) Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will pay a three-day visit to Turkey starting February 22 for the fifth session of the Pakistan-Turkey High Level Strategic Cooperation Council (HLSCC) meeting in the capital Ankara.

Pakistan s Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday that the meeting will be held on February 23 and a high-level delegation comprising ministers and senior officials will accompany Sharif during the visit.

Sharif is expected to have wide-ranging consultations with the Turkish leadership on bilateral regional and international issues Xinhua reported.

Together with his Turkish counterpart Binali Yildirim Sharif would co-chair the HLSCC a framework for consultations at the highest political level between the two sides with focus on trade energy banking and finance communications and railways education culture and tourism.

The bilateral HLSCC was established in 2009 and its last session was held in Islamabad in 2015. During the visit Sharif also plans to meet Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

--IANS
soni/dg