President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan met with Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif on Sunday on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in China’s Tianjin. The two leaders discussed bilateral ties as well as regional and global issues.
The Presidency’s Communications Directorate said in a statement that Erdoğan told Sharif that Türkiye and Pakistan endeavored to enhance cooperation in many fields, particularly trade, energy, the defense industry and security. He expressed appreciation for the development of relations between Pakistan and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), and praised the solidarity between the two countries.
Although Pakistan does not fully recognize the independence and sovereignty of the TRNC, Sharif has repeatedly expressed his country’s support for the Turkish Cypriots’ cause of establishing a sovereign state on the divided island of Cyprus. Relations between the two countries have flourished under the leadership of Sharif and TRNC President Ersin Tatar.
During the meeting, Erdoğan also emphasized that Pakistan and Türkiye share the same stance on Israel’s genocide in Gaza and stressed that the two countries would work together on this matter.
