Defense Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif and his Maldivian counterpart Adam Shareef Umar Tuesday agreed to further increase defense cooperation between the two countries. Both the leaders discussed matters pertaining to counter terrorism and training of military officers of Maldives, said a press release issued here on Tuesday.
While welcoming the Maldivian counterpart, Khawaja Asif highlighted the importance of Maldives among SAARC countries and the role being played by the Maldives in regional and global scenarios. The bilateral relations between the two counties were based common religion, culture and principle of respecting each others sovereignty and territorial integrity, he added.
Adam Shareef Umer while reciprocating the sentiments said that both countries enjoy excellent bilateral relations based on mutual trust, confidence and commonality of views on various regional and international issues. He pointed out that exchange of high level visits and regular meetings are instrumental in strengthening cooperation between two countries. Both sides agreed to further strengthen and diversity their existing bilateral defence relation to include counter terrorism cooperation besides further enhance and availing training courses by personnel of armed forces of Maldives in the training institutions of Pakistan and holding of regular joint seminars to learn from each other's experiences.