Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has accepted Turkiye President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s assignation for a two-day sanctioned visit starting Friday(Nov 25), the Foreign Office(FO) blazoned on Thursday.
According to the FO’s press release, the premier will “concertedly inaugurate the third of the four Milgem Corvette vessels for the Pakistan Navy, PNS Khaibar, at the Istanbul Shipyard”.
PM Shehbaz will “interact with leaders of the Turkish business community” and also meet the President of the ECO Trade and Development Bank during his stay in the country’s civic centre, Istanbul.
Shehbaz and Erdogan will hold wide-ranging conversations on “bilateral relations, the indigenous situation and other issues of common interest”, the FO said.
The FO added that the two countries “enjoy brotherly ties deeply bedded in similarities of faith, culture, and history and sustained by exceptional charity and collective trust”.
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The Milgem design — grounded on a common collaboration between Turkiye and Pakistan was inked with ASFAT inc, a Turkish state-possessed Defence contractor establishment in 2018, according to which the Pakistan cortege would acquire four Milgem-class vessels from Turkey.
Milgem vessels are 99 metres long, have a relegation capacity of,400 tons and have a speed of 29 navigational long hauls.
These anti-submarine combat frigates, which can be hidden from the radar, would further enhance the defence capability of the Pakistan Navy.
The launching form for the first Corvette for the Pakistan Navy, PNS Babur, was performed in Istanbul in August 2021 while the groundbreaking for the alternate boat, PNS Badr, was held in Karachi in May 2022, the FO said.
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It added that the design “represents a significant corner in the Pakistan- Turkiye strategic cooperation that continues to progress on an upward line”.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif before visited Turkiye in May- June 2022, the press release said.
The FO nominated the frequent leadership-position exchanges to be a “defining point of the eternal bonds of Pakistan-Turkiye fellowship.”
