Description: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was well received in Islamabad by his Pakistani counterpart Asif Ali Zardari and Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. The meeting was initiated by the Pakistani Prime Minister in order to strengthen strategic, military and trade ties between the two countries which are expected to sign a plethora of cooperation agreements. With Pakistan’s resurgence of armed violence in the past couple of months, security was heightened while the Turkish delegation and Pakistan’s political echelon talked on current geopolitical issues such as the Palestinian question, and the reshaping of global and regional geopolitics with Donald Trump in the White House.
Impact: Erdogan’s Asia tour aims to widen Turkey’s geopolitical regional clout as the country started reshaping its foreign policy and international relations approach since the ousting of Syrian President Bashar al – Assad. Recently Erdogan established a gas deal with Turkmenistan, visited Indonesia and Malaysia and strengthened ties with Pakistan which would eventually enable Turkey to reposition and play integral regional role in geopolitical shifts and changes. Turkey would further aim to leverage its close ties with Islamic countries and establish binding cooperation agreements on several fields which would continuously increase their geostrategic position in Asia and enlarge their influence in Europe.