ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar and British Foreign Secretary David Cameron on Monday exchanged views on bilateral relations, and regional issues and also resolved to continue working closely to further enhance bilateral ties in different areas.

The foreign minister stated this through a statement on the social media platform, X, in which he also stated that they vowed to continue working closely to further enhance cooperation in areas such as trade, investment and people-to-people contacts.

“Today I received a telephone call from Lord David Cameron, Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs of the United Kingdom. We discussed bilateral relations and regional issues and resolved to continue working closely to further enhance strong bilateral cooperation in trade, investment, education, climate change and people-to-people contacts,” Dar stated in the post on X.

According to a statement of the Foreign Office, the foreign minister, while reiterating the importance of the Pakistan-UK relationship, said that Pakistan and the UK had longstanding, historic relations with multifaceted cooperation.

He also emphasised the early conclusion of the Enhanced Strategic Partnership (ESP) agreement to take relations to the next level.

It added that the foreign minister stressed on the need to enhance bilateral cooperation in trade and investment, people-to-people contacts and climate.

It stated that Dar stressed on the need for early resumption of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flights between Pakistan and the UK which would further bolster linkages, particularly in view of the large Pakistani diaspora in the UK.

“The two ministers also discussed important regional issues including Afghanistan and the situation in Gaza,” it added.

According to the statement, the foreign minister invited Lord Cameron to visit Pakistan on mutually convenient dates.

The foreign minister also thanked the British foreign secretary for his message of felicitations on his appointment as the foreign minister and said that he looked forward to working closely with the UK leadership to further strengthen bilateral relations.

Secretary Cameron was on his scheduled visit to Australia and Bangkok when Foreign Minister Dar made a stopover in London during his trip to Brussels to Participate in the Nuclear Energy Summit and a meeting between them could not be held.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024

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