This is a busy diplomatic weekend for Turkey. As well as the Economic Summit in Istanbul, Turkey is also hosting the 5th Turkey-Afghanistan-Pakistan tripartite summit. Turkey is clearly busy trying to shape its role in the middle east region, and it takes every opportunity to show it.

It this in this context that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoðan met Friday with Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Ýstanbul today.

According to commentators the summit is expected to bring about some concrete results and decisions.

The presidents of the three countries are expected to take decisions for setting up a direct video conference call system between their offices, launching a joint emergency exercise against natural disasters, the establishment of a joint platform aiming to bring together scholars from Turkey, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

A framework agreement aiming to enhance the capacity of the three countries to cooperate, as well as agreements for establishment of a Counter-Terrorism Excellency Center, cooperation between the police departments of the three countries and cooperation in counter-narcotics will also be signed during the meeting.

The tripartite mechanism was launched in 2007.