(UTV|COLOMBO) – The Prime Minister of Pakistan, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi pledged to move forward further strengthening the economic and trade relations between Sri Lanka and Pakistan.
The official bilateral meeting between the visiting President and the Pakistani Prime Minister was held at the Prime Minister’s Official Residence in Islamabad, on Friday (23).
The President was warmly received by the Prime Minister of Pakistan when he arrived at the Prime Minister’s Official Residence.
Bilateral discussions were held after a cordial meeting between the two leaders.
The Pakistani Prime Minister thanked President Maithripala Sirisena for accepting the invitation extended by him to attend the Pakistan Republic Day Celebrations as the Chief Guest and further said that the President’s participation was a great honour to the country.
President Sirisena also extended his special thanks to the Government of Pakistan for extending him an invitation to attend this event.
Two leaders held a lengthy discussion on strengthening economic and trade relations as well as defence training programmes between the two countries.
It was also discussed to achieve $ 1 billion target in economic cooperation between the two countries.
During the meeting the Pakistan Prime Minister stated that the government of Pakistan is willing to provide their experiences in the fields of oil and natural gas to Sri Lanka at any time and the President said that Sri Lanka has paid special attention in this regard as we have to face energy issues in the future.
The President also appreciated the support extended to Sri Lanka over the past 50 years by Pakistan marking the longstanding friendship between the two countries.
The President took this opportunity to thank Pakistan Prime Minister for his quick response to a recent phone call made by him to the Premier regarding the fertilizer issue.
President Sirisena praised the continuous assistance provided by Pakistan to Sri Lanka when the country face disastrous situations and also expressed his appreciation over the assistance provided by the Pakistan government to the security forces by training them, during the war period.
Expressing his views on the recent incident occurred in Kandy, the Prime Minister of Pakistan stated that he bestow his honour on the President in recognition of the manner in which the President acted to solve the issues utilizing his mature political experiences.
Speaking on this issue, the President said that a certain group attempted to use this incident a harmful manner and further said that he regrets regarding this incident and will not allow any room to reoccur this kind of incidents in the future.
The President and the Prime Minister of Pakistan also discussed regarding the activities of SAARC and the President said that Sri Lanka is prepared to provide any assistance to take forward initiatives of SAARC.
Following this bilateral discussions, three MoUs were signed between the two countries.
A MoU between Bandaranaike International Diplomatic Training Institute (BIDTI ) and the Foreign Service Academy of Pakistan was signed by the State Minister Wasantha Senanayake and the Pakistan Foreign Secretary.
MoU between National School of Public Policy (NSPP) of the Government of Pakistan and Sri Lankan Institute of Development Administration (SLIDA) of Sri Lanka was signed by the Sri Lankan High Commissioner to Pakistan and the Dean of the Pakistan NSPP.
A bilateral agreement was signed between the two countries to enhance youth development and the agreement was signed by the Secretary to the Pakistan Ministry of Inter Provincial Coordination and the Sri Lankan High Commissioner to Pakistan.
President Sirisena presented the Prime Minister Abbasi with a gift of eye corneas under a friendship programme initiated by Pakistan Sri Lanka Trade and Investment Friendship Association.
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