Bilateral consultations were held between Pakistan and Finland here on Thursday. The Finnish side was led by Jaakko Laajava, Under Secretary of State of the Republic of Finland and the Pakistan side by Abdul Basit, Additional Secretary (Europe & FODP). The last round of consultation was held in Helsinki in July 2007.
Later, the Under Secretary of State Jaakko Laajava also called on Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir. They reviewed a broad-range of bilateral issues and noted that excellent relations between the two countries needed to be translated into more meaningful co-operation particularly in the fields of trade and investment. The Finnish Under Secretary applauded the role Pakistan was playing in fighting extremism and terrorism and the tremendous sacrifices it had made both in terms of human and material losses. He also assured that Finland would continue to support Pakistan bilaterally in the EU.
At the bilateral consultations, both sides expressed their satisfaction at the current state of bilateral relations and reiterated their mutual desire to further expand and diversify these mutually beneficial relations. They also underscored the need to establish supporting mechanisms to achieve the objective. In this regard, several proposals were discussed, including establishing a Joint Economic Commission and a Joint Business Council. Views were also exchanged on Afghanistan, counterterrorism, Pakistan-India relations, "Arab Spring" Euro zone debt crisis, UN reforms and issues at the Conference on Disarmament..-PR