President Ahmadinejad to visit Pakistan for tripartite meeting

A Foreign Ministry official said Wednesday that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will visit Pakistan within a month to attend a tripartite meeting with his counterparts from Afghanistan and Pakistan. Deputy Foreign Minister for Asia-Pacific and Commonwealth Affairs Abbas Araqchi told IRNA that trilateral cooperation among Tehran, Kabul and Islamabad to restore a lasting peace in Afghanistan would be the main subject of the meeting. The meeting is expected to be held during the current Iranian calendar month of Bahman (January 21-February19), Araqchi said referring to an official invitation received by President Ahmadinejad from his Pakistani counterpart for a visit to the country. Araqchi added that the three presidents would also exchange views on major political and economic relations among the three capitals. Meanwhile, Araqchi added that foreign ministers of Iran, Turkey and Azerbaijan are also to hold a meeting in Nakhichevan, a landlocked exclave of Azerbaijan, to discuss issues of mutual interest. He added that expansion of Tehran-Istanbul-Baku economic cooperation would be the main topic to be discussed by the foreign ministers of the three countries. The final dates of the two tripartite meetings are under discussion by officials of each participating country, Araqchi said. The first foreign ministerial meeting of Iran, Turkey and Azerbaijan was held in the northwestern Iranian city of Orumiyeh in April 2011.