New Delhi: Türkiye is the first nation to come out in solidarity with Islamabad, following the precision strikes carried out by the Indian armed forces targeting terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
“FM of Türkiye @HakanFidan called DPM/FM @MIshaqDar50 to express Türkiye’s solidarity with Pakistan against India’s unprovoked aggression violating Pakistan’s sovereignty and killing innocent civilians,” the Pakistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement Wednesday morning.
“He (Hakan Fidan) expressed concern over the deteriorating regional security situation. Both leaders agreed to remain in close coordination on the evolving situation,” the statement read.
Ankara has been one of the few steadfast allies of Islamabad, with a Turkish naval vessel making a port of call in Karachi in the last few days after the 22 April terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam.
According to reports apart from the lone naval vessel, at least one Turkish Air Force plane landed in Pakistan since the Pahalgam attack, in which at least 26 were killed. The Prime Minister of Pakistan, Shehbaz Sharif, was in Türkiye when the Pahalgam terrorist attack had occurred, and had met with Turkish President Reccep Tayyip Erdogan just hours after the attack. Sharif thanked the Turkish president’s support to Pakistan on the issue of Jammu and Kashmir.
Ankara, a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, has been a strategic partner of Pakistan for years, and has maintained close defence ties with Islamabad. Fidan, the Turkish foreign minister, is the first to speak with his Pakistani counterpart Ishaq Dar, following Operation Sindoor.
In the early hours of Wednesday, the Indian armed forces launched a precision strike against nine sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, two weeks after the Pahalgam attack. The Ministry of Defence in a statement called the strikes “focused, measured and non-escalatory in nature”.
Pakistan has vowed retaliation. India’s National Security Adviser Ajit Doval held a conversation with his American counterpart and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, briefing him on the strike. Senior Indian officials have also briefed their counterparts in a number of countries, including Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Russia and the UK, according to sources.
(Edited by Mannat Chugh)
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