Chief of Army Staff (CoAS), General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani left for Turkey on Monday to participate in 6th Summit on Afghanistan to be held on November 1 in Istanbul under the chairmanship of Turkish President Abdullah Gul. In a statement, ISPR said that the CoAS would hold discussions with senior military leaders of Turkey and Afghanistan. The conference encompasses trilateral meetings between political and military leadership of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Turkey.
The summit will focus on means for boosting security co-operation between Islamabad and Kabul. The United States has been pressing Pakistan for action against Afghan insurgents in the region, especially the Haqqani Network that it says is the major threat to Afghanistan and receive assistance from the Pakistan Inter Services Intelligence (ISI).
Washington claims the Haqqanis, based in Pakistan's North Waziristan region, are mounting direct assaults on US soldiers and civilians in Afghanistan that justify a stepped-up US military push against them in Afghanistan and more CIA drone strikes to kill clan leaders in Pakistan. It has further been learnt that India is going to join the Istanbul Conference for Afghanistan along with the representatives from a large number of countries on November 2. Turkey will make India and Pakistan to sit around the same table during the second conference to be chaired by Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.
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