Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, host of the World Economic Forum on Europe and Central Asia, took the opportunity last Thursday to organise a sideline meeting between the leaders of Pakistan and Afghanistan. PM Yousuf Raza Gilani and President Hamid Karzai agreed to continue to hold trilateral summits and to work towards co-operation and security in the region.

So far as Turkey is concerned, it has always been willing to act as facilitator for Pakistan whether it was for holding the first ever ministerial level meeting between Pakistan and Israel or now to create a comfort level with the leaders of Afghanistan. With regard to the issues involving terrorism, indeed Turkey has had its share of extremist violence. Nonetheless what happened there had no linkage with terrorism threatening the peace and security of this region.

After all, the extremist violence that it faces at home has little to do with Muslim extremism that threatens to destabilise governments from Central Asia to Pakistan and China’s Muslim majority province of Xinjiang. It needs to be recognised, though, that whatever goes on in Afghanistan and the region around has consequences for Iran. Hence, it is important to include both China and Iran in any plan for regional co-operation against extremism.