ISLAMABAD: Speaker National Assembly Asad Qaiser Wednesday stressed theneed for building new partnerships in the region and sought to enhance thecooperation in trade and commerce between Pakistan and Turkey.
He expressed his gratitude for the continued support of Turkey to thepeople of Jammu and Kashmir. He expressed these views while talking toSpeaker of Turkish Grand National Assembly Mustafa Sentopin in Moscow,Russia, according to a message received here.
During the meeting, the Turkish Speaker termed Kashmir a “bleeding wound ofhistory” and urged an early resolution of the dispute between India andPakistan under the UN resolutions and by taking the aspirations of theKashmiri people into account.
He reiterated Turkish support to the Kashmir cause. The Turkish Speakercalled the relation between Pakistan and Turkey as “deeply etched in thehearts and minds of the two people”.
He emphasized on further promoting the cooperation and said it was thecornerstone of Turkish foreign policy to see a prosperous, peaceful anddeveloped Pakistan.
The two sides also stressed for regional peace and resolved to strengthenthe forum of the “Speakers Conference of Afghanistan, China, Iran,Pakistan, Russia and Turkey”.
This forum was established on the suggestion of Pakistan in 2017 when itsfirst conference was held in Islamabad in December 2017. The Forum is dueto meet in October 2019 in Istanbul for the third time after it held itssecond meeting in Tehran in 2018.
The Turkish Speaker acknowledged Pakistan National Assembly’s contributionsfor the regional peace through the establishment of this Forum and soughtto enhance its mandate. Speaker Asad Qaiser agreed to the idea ofdiscussing the matter in the next meeting of the Speakers Conference.
Speaker Asad Qaiser was referring to the visit of the Prime Minister ofPakistan, during which various agreements were signed for enhancingeconomic and strategic cooperation to next level.
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He said both countries needed to translate excellent political cooperationinto a vibrant economic partnership.
Both sides noted that while the strategic partnership of the two countrieshad seen a marked increase in the recent years, the same was not reflectedin the economic cooperation.
The volume of bilateral trade, although improved in recent years, still hada great potential for increase on both sides. Speaker Asad Qaiser informedthe Turkish Speaker about his initiative of forming a Special Committee onAgriculture and said he was keen to focus on this vital sector since it wasthe lifeline of over 70 percent of his country’s population.
Speaker Mustafa Sentop, while taking keen interest, inquired about theworking of the Committee and favored joint cooperation in this regard.
Speaker Qaiser further noted that the conclusion of free Trade Agreementand removal of double tariffs would give a boost to economic cooperation.For this, he sought a greater push and reiterated to the already extendedinvitation to the President of Turkey and hoped to welcome him in Pakistanfor the next round of talks between the two countries.
Speaker Asad Qaiser also reaffirmed his already extended invitation to hisTurkish counterpart, which was accepted by Speaker Mustafa of Turkey andhoped to visit Pakistan in November this year.
