PM Shehbaz Sharif to attend Erdogan’s inauguration ceremony

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will attend the inauguration ceremony of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara on June 3, confirmed Foreign Office Spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch on Thursday.

The prime minister is paying the visit at the invitation of President Erdogan, who was re-elected to his office on May 28.

“The prime minister’s visit will be a reaffirmation of the deep-rooted fraternal ties between Pakistan and Turkiye,” Mumtaz Zahra Baloch at a weekly press briefing.

The FO spokesperson said the prime minister would convey warm felicitations on behalf of the government and people of Pakistan to President Erdogan.

The prime minister would also extend an invitation to President Erdogan to attend the 7th Meeting of the High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council (HLSCC) in Islamabad, she said.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan Sunday won Turkey’s presidential election, defeating opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu in runoff vote and stretching his rule into a third decade.

With 99.43% of the votes counted, preliminary official results announced by Turkey’s Supreme Election Council (YSK) on Sunday showed Erdogan winning with 52.14% of the votes. Kilicdaroglu received 47.86%.

Meanwhile, FO spokesperson Baloch said that Minister of State (MoS) for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar will undertake official visits to Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Belgium from June 5-13.

“The MoS will hold meetings at the ministerial level to discuss political engagement and cooperation in development, trade and climate change,” she said.

She will also meet lawmakers and local entrepreneurs. In Belgium, she will hold meetings with Members of the European Parliament and senior officials of the European Commission.

In Sweden, the Minister of State will attend the annual meeting of the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) as a keynote speaker. She will present Pakistan’s perspective on issues of regional and global importance and interact with leading European decision-makers, experts, think tanks, and influencers for debates on foreign policy priorities and challenges.

The FO spokesperson said Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari was currently in Jordan to attend the wedding of Crown Prince Hussein at the invitation of the Royal family of Jordan.

From Jordan, FM Bilawal will travel to Iraq from the 5th to 7th of June at the invitation of the Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Dr. Fuad Hussein. This is Foreign Minister’s first visit to Iraq.

“During the visit, the Foreign Minister will meet the Iraqi leadership. In his meeting with his counterpart, the two sides will discuss a range of issues of common interest and explore avenues of bilateral cooperation,” she said.

Furthermore, the FO spokesperson said Pakistan was deeply concerned over India’s latest move seeking the death penalty for prominent Kashmiri leader, Yasin Malik.

Last year, Yasin Malik was awarded a life sentence in a contrived case, marked by fabricated charges and denial of fair trial. He is being held in inhumane conditions in the notorious Tihar jail despite his deteriorating health.

She urged the Indian authorities to bring an end to the “farce of a trial” of Yasin Malik and provide him with quality health treatment and allowed him to live freely among his family.