March 9, 2008
The first meeting of Working Group on trade and transit, “I.stanbul Forum for Economic Cooperation between Afghanistan, Turkey and Pakistan” was initiated on 26 October 2007 between the Chambers of Commerce and Industries of three countries to promote business to business contributions to the confidence building process in the region.
I.stanbul Forum at its second meeting on 28 January 2008 decided to focus on three priority areas:
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Pre-feasibility reports for the above-mentioned projects will be completed until the next meeting of the forum which is planned to be held in Islamabad in April 2008.
Istanbul Forum is in fact a part of a wider trilateral political mechanism initiated on the basis of Ankara Declaration announced by the Presidents of three states last April. Apart from the commercial and economic cooperation projects, within the framework of this trilateral mechanism, Turkey has also been organizing joint training programmes in the fields of counter-narcotics and counter-terrorism in Ankara with the participation of Afghan and Pakistani officials.
Before the next meeting of I.stanbul Forum in Islamabad, a fact-finding mission from *Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB) *visit to Afghanistan on 9 March 2008. TOBB delegation had meetings with its Afghan counterparts as well as EPAA.
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