Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar arrived in Istanbul to attend a meeting of R-4 bloc foreign ministers and a meeting between the R-4 bloc and European diplomats on Friday, the Foreign Office (FO) said.
The R-4 group, comprising Pakistan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkiye, emerged in March and has been focusing on regional security and mediation efforts between the United States and Iran.
Dar left for Istanbul earlier in the day and is attending the meeting at the invitation of Turkiye’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan.
In a post on X, FO said that upon arrival, Dar was received by the Director General of the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Cihad Erginay and Pakistan’s Chargé d’Affaires Shaiq Ahmed.
FO added that during the one-day visit, DPM Dar will be participating in the R-4 and R-4 plus France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom. Dar will also call on Turkiye President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and hold bilateral meetings with his counterparts, FO said.
Earlier, FO said that the ministers will participate in a meeting with counterparts from the European E-3 bloc — UK, France, and Germany — following the R-4 meeting.
The E-3 group comprises three European powers that established the grouping more than 20 years ago to advance diplomatic coordination on Iran’s nuclear programme. Italy will also be a part of the meeting, FO had added.
“This will be the first meeting of the seven countries in this format,” FO said.
“The meetings will focus on key regional developments and explore coordinated diplomatic approaches to address shared challenges and advance regional peace and stability,” FO added.
DPM Dar is also set to hold bilateral meetings with his counterparts during his visit as well.
“Pakistan’s participation reflects its continued commitment to constructive diplomacy, regional cooperation and the peaceful resolution of disputes,” FO said.
Talks to revolve around Hormuz, Saudi Arabia
British foreign minister Ed Miliband’s office said the talks would essentially revolve around “the Strait of Hormuz and the situation in Saudi Arabia”.
It said Miliband “will advocate for a diplomatic solution to the (Hormuz) crisis that restores full navigational rights and freedoms”.
He will also stress “how Iranian tactics are being replicated across the region, with attacks on Saudi Arabia further destabilising the region and increasing pressure on vital waterways and global chokepoints, such as Bab El-Mandeb and the Suez Canal”, it added.
France confirmed the talks on “the Iranian crisis in its various ramifications”, hailing it as a first “in this format… against a backdrop of extreme instability and uncertainty in the region.”
The meeting will aim to “strengthen coordination between Europeans and Middle Eastern countries in the face of crises that we did not choose and that affect us all,” the French foreign ministry said.
A Turkish diplomatic source also told Reuters a day earlier that the seven countries would meet in the R-4+E-3 format for the first time at Turkiye’s initiative as wars involving Iran, Yemen and Ukraine threaten shipping routes and regional security.
Fidan is expected to emphasise the need for a diplomatic solution to the war between the United States and Iran, the importance of freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz and Bab al-Mandeb, and reiterate Turkiye’s support for Saudi Arabia’s security against attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels under the Makkah Joint Defence Agreement signed by Islamabad, Ankara, and Riyadh, the sources said.
The Makkah defence pact, signed on Aug 7, aims to strengthen collective deterrence and empower its signatory states to treat an attack against one of them as an attack against all of them.
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