DM Monitoring
COLOMBO: Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has said that Pakistan has “shifted its geo-political priorities into geo-economic priorities”, while speaking about Prime Minister Imran Khan’s visit to Sri Lanka. The foreign minister was briefing the media about the premier’s maiden visit to Colombo. Qureshi said that Pakistan has offered a credit line of $15 million to Sri Lanka for defence and security cooperation to “end the menace of terrorism which is of equal importance to both” countries. Furthermore, the government has also decided to offer scholarships to 100 Sri Lankan students in the top medical institutes in Pakistan, he said.
FM Qureshi assured that Pakistan stood by Sri Lanka in the fight against terrorism especially when the latter was “in trouble and terrorism [there] was at its peak”. “They share credit [of defeating terrorism] with Pakistan,” Qureshi said in a conversation with reporters. He said that the prime minister’s visit will help in strengthening bilateral ties and increase cooperation between the two countries. The two sides also discussed ways to enhance bilateral trade and investment during the visit, Qureshi said, adding that trade between the two countries was below potential even though a free trade agreement existed.
