By Uzma Zafar
ISLAMABAD: President Dr Arif Alvi on Monday stressed the need for strengthening relations with Iraq in areas of trade, defence cooperation and culture.
Talking to the country’s ambassador-designate to Iraq Ahmed Amjad Ali here at the Aiwan-e-Sadr, the president said immense potential existed in exploring bilateral cooperation between Pakistan and Iraq in diverse fields.
Highlighting Pakistan’s increased focus on promoting regional connectivity, the president said that Pakistan’s policy had shifted from geopolitics to geoeconomics as the country was earnest efforts to increase trade and economic relations with regional countries.
The president urged the ambassador-designate to work towards facilitating the Pakistani diaspora and the pilgrims visiting Iraq.
He emphasized on enhancing the air and sea links between the two countries to promote their people-to-people relations.
He also asked the envoy-designate to work on promoting high-level exchanges between the two countries.
The president congratulated the envoy on his appointment as Pakistan’s ambassador to Iraq and expressed the hope that he would play his role to further promote bilateral ties between the two countries.
On May 30, Islamabad had proposed a new framework at the foreign ministers level between Pakistan and Iraq to deepen bilateral cooperation, officials said after Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi’s talks with Iraqi leadership in Baghdad.
Qureshi is on a three-day visit to Iraq where he held talks with both the Iraqi President and the Prime minister, an official handout issued by the Foreign Office said. The discussions focused on how to deepen bilateral cooperation in different fields.
