Pakistan and Egypt have reiterated their desire to further promote the bilateral co-operation in the fields of trade, economy and particularly defence. This was discussed at a meeting held on Tuesday between Minister for Defence Chaudhry Ahmad Mukhtar and the Egyptian Ambassador to Pakistan Magdy Amer, who called on him in Ministry of Defence Rawalpindi.
The meeting noted that there existed tremendous potential between the two countries, which needed to be explored for improving the mutually beneficial co-operation. The Minister told the envoy that Pakistan enjoyed excellent relations with Egypt and wanted to enhance its ties at much bigger levels.
The meeting stressed the need for exchange of visits at the military levels so as to strengthen defence co-operation between the two brotherly countries. The ongoing tension between Pakistan and India also came under discussion during the meeting. The Minister said that Pakistan was averse to war and strongly believed in promotion of peace and stability with all its neighbours.
He said that Pakistan was committed to combating and eliminating the menace of terrorism and violent extremism and the world community needed to understand Pakistan's position as it had suffered a lot at hands of terrorists. The Minister said that Pakistan had constructively offered to India to undertake joint investigation into the Bombay attacks. The Minister also lauded the efforts by the friendly countries engaged in defusing tension between Pakistan and India.
The ambassador of Uzbekistan Oybek A. Usmanov separately called on the Minister and exchanged views on matters of bilateral interests. Talking to the ambassador, the Minister said that Pakistan attached great importance to its ties with Uzbekistan as the two countries shared common faith, history and had enormous potentials for improving bilateral co-operation.
He said that two brotherly countries needed to intensify co-operation in all areas for the mutual benefits of the two sides. The Minister also informed the ambassador about the counter-terrorism measure taken by Pakistan. He said that the global community needed to collectively play its role to weed out terrorism so as to make the world a safer place.