PM Shehbaz to meet President Erdogan, attend diplomacy forum on third leg of tour today

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will meet Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and attend the Antalya Diplomacy Forum today on the third leg of a tri-nation tour, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said on Friday.

In a statement on X, the PMO said that the prime minister will participate in the leaders’ panel on the theme “Mapping Tomorrow, Managing Uncertainties,” being held at the fifth forum in Antalya.

The premier will present “Pakistan’s perspective” during the panel discussion and is also expected to meet other global leaders participating in the forum.

The PMO further said that the prime minister will also attend the forum’s inaugural ceremony.

After spending the afternoon in Qatar to discuss regional developments with its ruler, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif reached Turkiye on Thursday to meet President Tayyip Erdogan to apprise him about the peace talks to de-escalate tensions in the Middle East, as well as attend the 5th Antalya Diplomacy Forum.

For his tri-nation trip, PM Shehbaz left Pakistan on Wednesday for Saudi Arabia, where he met Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Jeddah, before his departure for Doha, where he met the Qatari ruler to discuss the US-Iran talks, brokered by Islamabad.

In its earlier statement, the FO said the visits to Saudi Arabia and Qatar were “in the bilateral context”. It added that the premier would meet the leadership there to “discuss ongoing bilateral cooperation as well as regional peace and security”.

Gulf countries — including Saudi Arabia — were facing Iranian attacks, which Tehran says were aimed at US and Israeli sites in response to the latter’s deadly large-scale strikes. Pakistan intensified efforts to act as a mediator between the United States and Iran to end the war that had engulfed the Middle East, leading to a fragile, temporary ceasefire and a first round of talks in Islamabad.