ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif and his Belarusian counterpart Andrey Kobyakov on Tuesday held a one-on-one meeting and discussed issues of bilateral interest with particular focus on enhancing cooperation in trade, defence and culture.
The two Prime Ministers in a meeting held at the PM House agreed on strengthening ties at the governmental and people-to-people levels for the mutual benefit of their countries.
The Belarusian Prime Minister who is on a three-day official visit to Islamabad expressed interest to explore the areas of economy and humanitarian cooperation through launch of two Roadmaps.
Prime Minister Sharif said the Pak-Belarus Roadmap on Economic Cooperation would provide a robust framework for multi-sectoral cooperation.
The two sides agreed that there existed a potential for Pakistan and Belarus to collaborate in the fields education, health, and science and technology.
Prime Minister Sharif recalled his visit to Minsk in August this year terming it as productive, and said the high-level visits between the two countries had extensively contributed to the strengthening of bilateral relations.
He mentioned that with working together, Pakistan and Belarus could enhance their bilateral trade volume to $US 60 million.
He expressed satisfaction over the outcome of the first Pakistan-Belarus meeting of the Joint Economic Commission on August 7th and added that the second meeting of the Pakistan-Business Joint Business and Investment Forum and the inaugural session of Pakistan-Belarus Business Council were most encouraging.
Prime Minister Sharif stressed to enhance economic cooperation in textile, agricultural equipment, heavy machinery, pharmaceuticals, dairy products and vehicles.
He mentioned that parliamentary contacts were an important element of the bilateral relations and welcomed the formation of the “Working Group for Cooperation in the Belarusian Parliament with the Parliament of Pakistan.”
He apprised Prime Minister Andrey Kobyakov that the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Assembly of Pakistan along with a delegation would visit Belarus soon.
The two sides discussed a whole range of issues including cooperation in defence, counter-terrorism and narcotics control.
The need of collaboration in education, culture and people-to-people linkages also came under discussion.
Source: APP
