TEHRAN: Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani and President Mehmoud
Ahmadinejad on Monday exchanged views to give fresh impetus to their
existing bilateral cooperation in various fields ranging from trade and
economy to security and intelligence sharing.
During the
meeting at the President House, the two leaders said that increase in
collaboration between the two countries is important to enhancing trade
volume compatible with their proximity and potential.
The
Iranian President said three countries of the region -Iran, Afghanistan
and Pakistan - should make coordinated efforts to solve the problems of
security and development so that no outside assistance is required by
them.
The Prime Minister disclosed that the two Committees, one
jointly headed by the Foreign Ministers and the other Security
Committee headed by Interior Ministers of the two countries, will
deliberate upon issues on regular basis with a view to making their
borders safer and boosting the economic activities and trade between
the two countries.
The Prime Minister said that the Iranian
Interior Minister would visit Pakistan and he would hold discussions
with his counterpart in Islamabad in the context of his instructions
that Iranian Government’s concerns on the borders of Balochistan,
Sistan must be addressed to their satisfaction.
Iranian
President Mehmoud Ahmadinejad said the Islamic Republic of Pakistan was
very keen to take necessary steps to enhance cooperation between the
two countries because Pakistan had a major role to play in this part of
the world. Prime Minister Gilani said there was a paradigm shift in
Pakistan’s foreign policy and now it wanted to maintain close relations
with the neighbours and Iran was one of those countries with which it
would like to have very close relations.
The Prime Minister
agreed with the Iranian President that the Gas Pipeline Project and
import of 1000 MW electricity from Iran should be expedited as Pakistan
was facing acute energy shortage which is hampering the pace of growth
of its economy. Both the sides favoured to allow their private sectors
to play active role in the development of their economies and
bottlenecks, if any, should be removed by setting up such a mechanism
that measures upto the imperatives of the modern economy.
President
Ahmadinejad assured Prime Minister Gilani that Pakistan would be given
priority in meeting the requirements of Iran and the goods and services
which are available in Pakistan would be given preferential treatment.
In
this regard the Iranian President said that his country would be keen
to import food items like wheat, vegetables and fruits in the
beginning. Prime Minister Gilani agreed with the Iranian President that
trade between the two countries was grossly incompatible to their
geographic location and commonality of heritage, which is an asset and
needs to be capitalized on by pursuing policies, formulated after a lot
of thinking and efforts.
Both the sides committed that they
will not spare any effort to boost the trade to the extent of US $ 10
billion. The current volume of trade between the two countries is US $
1.2 billion, with Pakistan’s exports only at around $ 200 million. Both
sides agreed that it was not possible to realize the immense potential
of trade between the two countries without effective communication and
transport links.
The Prime Minister urged for the up-gradation
of rail, road and air links between the two countries. He highly
appreciated the gesture of Iranian government and people for donating
US $ 100 million for rain and flood victims in Pakistan.
The
Iranian people and government are, indeed, friends of Pakistan, the
Prime Minister said. Gilani reaffirmed that Pakistan wanted a
sovereign, independent, prosperous and stable Afghanistan and supported
a process of reconciliation, which is Afghan-led and Afghan-owned. The
Prime Minister added that his country was part of the solution and not
part of problem. He informed that Pakistan suffered casualties of 5000
its troops and equal number of them were disabled, while it also
suffered casualties of 35,000 of its civilians, which is the price
Pakistan has paid in the fight against terrorism. Prime Minister Gilani
said that his government has made it clear to the US government that
unilateral action is not acceptable and if they have any credible
information, they must pass it on to Pakistan and its security forces
will take action on it. He added that he had told the US Secretary of
State in clear terms that drone attacks are counter-productive in the
war against terrorism and should be stopped. Online
