ISLAMABAD (GNP): Chief of Defence Forces and Chief of Army Staff Field Marshal Asim Munir held meetings with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Turkish Chief of General Staff General Selcuk Bayraktaroglu in Ankara on Tuesday, on the second day of a two-day official visit to Turkiye.
The Turkish Presidency said in a post on X that Erdogan received CDF Munir at Ankara Airport. Separately, the Embassy of the Republic of Turkiye in Islamabad said General Bayraktaroglu welcomed CDF Munir to Ankara, describing the defence and military relationship between the two countries as rooted in brotherhood, mutual trust and a shared strategic vision that continues to grow stronger. The embassy said CDF Munir was received with a Guard of Honour by a tri-services contingent of the Turkish Armed Forces upon arrival.
The Turkish Armed Forces said in a separate statement that CDF Munir, who travelled to Ankara as General Bayraktaroglu’s official guest, was welcomed with a military ceremony, after which bilateral and inter-delegation meetings were held.
General Bayraktaroglu presented CDF Munir with the Turkish Armed Forces Distinguished Service Medal, in recognition of his role in strengthening ties between the two countries’ militaries and contributing to the advancement of the Turkish Armed Forces, the statement said.
CDF Munir arrived in Turkiye on Monday for the visit, during which he was scheduled to hold meetings with the country’s military and political leadership on matters of mutual interest, according to Pakistan Television. No further details of the visit’s agenda were disclosed.
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The Ankara visit comes roughly a week after CDF Munir travelled to Iran alongside Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to attend the funeral of Iran’s late supreme leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, and about a month after Turkish Land Forces Commander General Metin Tokel visited Pakistan’s General Headquarters in Rawalpindi to meet CDF Munir, Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Naveed Ashraf and Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Zaheer Ahmed Baber Sidhu. During that visit, General Tokel spoke of his commitment to deepening defence cooperation and institutional links between the two militaries.
Taken together, the exchange of high-level visits over the past month, from General Tokel’s trip to Rawalpindi to CDF Munir’s reception in Ankara and the awarding of a distinguished service medal, points to a period of intensified military engagement between Pakistan and Turkiye, built on a defence relationship both sides have repeatedly described in terms of longstanding fraternal ties rather than a single transactional agreement.
