Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will be addressing the joint session of the Pakistani Parliament for the fourth time on Friday (Feb 14). He has the privilege to address the Parliament twice as his country’s Prime Minister while he has already addressed it as president once before. As Prime Minister, Erdogan addressed the joint session for the first time on Oct 26, 2009 and in the same capacity for the second time on May 21, 2012. As President he addressed the Parliament on Nov 17, 2017.

Diplomatic circle are attaching great significance to Turkish President’s address mainly because of its timing and secondly the every minute changing situations in the South Asian region and the Middle East following President Trump’s announcement of his controversial Middle East Formula.

Inviting Erdogan to address the Parliament for the fourth time speaks volumes about how much Pakistani leadership and the nation love Turkish brethren. This is also a reflection of strong existing bilateral ties between the two Muslim states. These relations are so close because of Islamic brotherhood, unity, equality, cultural links and common history.

It may be recalled that earlier Turkish President Kenan Evren addressed the joint session of the Parliament on Nov 15, 1985. Other who had this honour to address Pakistan’s National Assembly include Iranian Shahanshah Reza Shah Pahlavi (March 15, 1950, Philippine’s President Devdas (July 15, 1962) and Indonesian President Sukarno (June 26, 191963). Sri Lankan Prime Minister Bandaranaike addressed the joint session (Sept 5 1974). Palestinian President Yasser Arafat addressed the National Assembly (June 24, 1989), French President Mitran (Feb 20, 1990). Speaker of the Iranian Majlis-e-Shura Ali Akbar Nateq-Nouri addressed the National Assembly on April 11, 1994.

Speaker of the Iranian Majlis-e-Shura and head of the Pasdaran Ali Akbar Rafsanjani addressed the joint session on Sept 7, 1992. Chinese Prime Minister Jiang Zemin address the special session of the Senate on Dec 2, 1996, British Queen Elizabeth addressed the joint session on Oct 8, 1997, Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao addressed the joint session on Nov 19, 2010. Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang addressed Senate on May 13, 2013. Chinese President Xi Jinping addressed the joint session on April 21, 2015 while Indonesian President Joko Widodo addressed the joint session on Jan 26, 2018.