PAK, UZBEK FRIENDSHIP: Pakistan seeks to boost trade, defence ties with Uzbekistan

ISLAMABAD/TASHKENT, APR 16: Prime Minister Imran Khan and Uzbekistan President Shavkat Mirziyoyev Wednesday held wide-ranging talks and exchanged views on bilateral, regional and international issues.

In their first virtual summit, the two leaders reviewed the entire spectrum of bilateral relations with particular focus on political, trade, security and defence, educational and cultural domains.

Prime minister Imran Khan underlined the importance of enhancing political and diplomatic linkages, fast tracking trade and economic cooperation, ensuring early finalization of the Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) and Transit Trade Agreement (TTA), increasing security and defence cooperation, and taking steps to deepen mutual collaboration in the fields of education, culture and tourism.

He also underscored the importance of rail, road and air connectivity and highlighted the enormous potential that existed in diverse fields to build an expanded mutually-beneficial partnership.

The prime minister highlighted Pakistan’s economic security paradigm and the shifting focus to geo-economics and also stressed that Central Asia was a region of particular focus in this vision, a prime minister office media wing press release said.

During the summit, the level of progress on the Trans-Afghan Railway Line Project, agreed between Pakistan, Uzbekistan and Afghanistan earlier this year, was reviewed.

The project would be a first step in linking the Central Asian transport network with Pakistani seaports of Gwadar, Karachi and Qasim.

Prime minister Imran Khan said once completed, the initiative would transform the geo-economic dynamics of the entire regime.

The two leaders also discussed important global and regional matters of mutual interest, and reaffirmed the commitment to continue supporting each other at all international and regional fora, including the UN, OIC, SCO and ECO. Prime minister Imran Khan apprised on the latest situation in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), shared Pakistan’s perspective on issues of peace and security in South Asia, and underlined the imperative of peaceful resolution of the Jammu & Kashmir dispute.

He also highlighted Pakistan’s efforts to facilitate the Afghan peace process for lasting peace and stability in Afghanistan. He stressed that this historic opportunity must be seized by the Afghan parties to achieve an inclusive, broad-based and comprehensive negotiated political settlement. The prime minister also underscored the importance of countering Islamophobia and promoting inter-faith harmony.

They also reiterated their determination to maintain momentum of high-level exchanges and further enhance the upward trajectory of the relationship.

The two sides highlighted the depth of Pakistan-Uzbekistan relations rooted in common faith, shared history and cultural affinities and also agreed to encourage more people-to-people contacts including through spiritual (ziyarat) tourism.

Following agreements/MoUs were signed on the eve of the virtual summit:

The MoU for developing further cooperation in the field of agriculture, agreement on mutual recognition in the fields of conformity assessment of products, standardization, metrology and technical assistance and MoU on defence cooperation.

President Mirziyoyev reiterated his invitation to Prime Minister Imran Khan to attend the high-level international conference on regional connectivity, to be held in Tashkent in July this year.

The prime minister thanked President Mirziyoyev and reiterated his invitation to him to visit Pakistan at the earliest convenience.

The two leaders expressed confidence that the understandings reached during the virtual summit would further deepen bilateral cooperation and contribute towards forging a stronger, multi-dimensional relationship between the two countries. It was agreed to continue the summit-level political dialogue in future. A joint declaration was adopted at the conclusion of the summit.

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COURTESY dailytimes

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