ISLAMABAD: United Kingdom on Thursday assured continued support to Pakistan for greater market access as part of overall flood package from European Union and winning Generalised System of Preferences (GSP)-Plus status, as the two countries agreed to prepare a comprehensive plan of action to intensify co-operation in various fields.
This was agreed in talks held here in which Pakistani delegation was led by minister of state for foreign affairs Hina Rabbani Khar and the UK delegation by visiting British Foreign Secretary William Hague. Later, speaking at a joint news conference, the British foreign secretary said Pakistan and UK have unbreakable partnership and shared determination to defeat terrorism and violent extremism.
"UK is Pakistan's greatest advocate for market access to EU which could dramatically increase Pakistan's exports," he said, adding that Britain was committed to increasing mutual co-operation through national security dialogue.
He called for sustaining the strategic partnership based on mutual respect and mutual trust and benefit, terming it in the interest of both the countries. Commending Pakistan's efforts in fight against terrorism, the British foreign secretary said as frontline state, Pakistan has rendered countless sacrifices in the war than any other country, adding that UK stands with Pakistan to combat the menace.
Referring to Afghan peace and reconciliation efforts, Hague welcomed the announcement of withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan by US President Barack Obama, however, added that they would continue to remain engaged with Afghanistan even beyond 2014 when the withdrawal is to be completed. "The UK welcomes the announcement of Obama, which is in line with our ideas," he said, adding that the plan is that the Afghan forces should gradually take the responsibility of security uptill 2014. He said UK expects to reduce 400 soldiers and further reduction will be made by 2015 tied to the security situation.
He said Pakistan has very important and responsible role to play in promoting Afghan-led reconciliation and peace efforts in Afghanistan. To a question, he said contacts with Taliban were preliminary in nature, adding that the political process was necessary for sustainable peace and security of Afghanistan.
The British foreign secretary said his government's four year education programme for Pakistan would help more than four million children to get school enrolment, help recruit and train 90,000 teachers, besides providing six million sets of textbooks.
He extended an invitation to Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani on behalf of British Prime Minister to visit London in April next year for annual summit level review of bilateral relations. He also invited minister of state for foreign affairs, Hina Khar to visit UK.
Referring to the murder of a journalist Saleem Shahzad, the British foreign secretary said UK had concerns over the killing of Shahzad, adding that he discussed the matter with minister of state for foreign affairs. He expressed the hope that the judicial commission constituted to probe the incident, would bring the culprits to book.
Earlier, Khar said that Pakistan and UK have identified five areas as constituents of the enhanced strategic dialogue between the two countries and Pakistan would share working paper with UK in moving forward on each one of them. She said the two sides have agreed to enlarge the role of British-Pakistan Foundation formally launched in October 2010.
She said the two sides have also agreed to take concrete steps through working papers towards increasing bilateral trade to 2.5 billion pounds sterling by 2015, adding that a UK trade delegation would visit Pakistan later this year or early next year. She said that during the talks, the British foreign secretary assured that his country would continue to extend support to Pakistan for greater market access within the context of overall package from EU and GSP Plus as well. She also appreciated the role played by Britain in seeking trade package for Pakistan from the EU. "We are now waiting for endorsement by the WTO and desire your continued support in this regard," she said.
She said Pakistan has two summit level interactions with the EU and we would also want to start negotiations for free trade agreement with EU very soon. We look forward to launching Pak-EU strategic dialogue as soon as possible," she said, adding Britain would also support Pakistan's efforts for institutionalisation of Pakistan-EU summit mechanism.
About the Afghan peace reconciliation, she said that Pakistan was fully behind any move, which is Afghan-led and Afghan-owned. "If we are able to get more clarity in our approach and work together then certainly peace would become a reality," she added.
She also thanked UK for announcing assistance worth 650 million sterling for education sector of Pakistan, which would help out of school children bring back to schools in Sindh, Punjab and in far flung areas. She also appreciated the comments made by British Prime Minister that enemy of Pakistan is enemy of Britain and added that this is very significant in view of the immense sufferings of the people, loss of life and economic price that Pakistan had to pay because of its role in the war against terrorism.
Comments
Comments are closed.