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ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Argentina have agreed to expand bilateral trade by increasing the level of interaction at multiple levels.
According to a statement issued on Friday, Argentina agreed to extend all-out support for enhancing bilateral cooperation with Pakistan to boost trade cooperation.
Both countries held the fourth round of bilateral political consultations via video link and discussed a wide range of bilateral, regional and multilateral matters of mutual interest, it added.
Faisal Niaz Tirmizi, Additional Secretary (Americas), Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan, and Ambassador Jose Luis Perez Gabilondo, Undersecretary Foreign Policy, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, International Trade and Worship of the Argentine Republic, led the consultations.
On the occasion, the additional secretary underscored that ever since the establishment of diplomatic relations between Pakistan and Argentina in October 1951, the two countries have enjoyed a cordial relationship based on mutual respect and understanding.
He underlined the need to mark the completion of 70 years of diplomatic relations between the two countries in a befitting manner.
The additional secretary urged the importance of expanding the scope of bilateral trade between Pakistan and Argentina by increasing interaction at multiple levels and by holding a virtual meeting of the Joint Trade Committee in the first quarter of 2021.
He also expressed the desire to reactivate Pakistan’s Antarctic Programme, as the country intended to undertake more research expeditions to Antarctica with the collaboration of Argentina.
The exchange of views also covered the impact of coronavirus on the national and global economy and steps to mitigate the effects of the pandemic on the lives of the common people.
The additional secretary reiterated the offer extended by the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) to export locally-produced ventilators to Argentina.
The prime minister’s ‘Global Initiative on Debt Relief’ for developing countries and cooperation in the fields of climate change, sports, culture and people-to-people contacts through visa facilitation also came under discussion.
Tirmizi highlighted the importance of parliamentary exchanges between the two countries and mutual cooperation in such form as the IPU. The two sides also took stock of the under-process bilateral agreements and memorandum of understanding (MOUs).
An MOU on cooperation in the field of sanitary and phytosanitary issues related to bilateral trade between Pakistan and Argentine was signed in Buenos Aires by the Ambassador of Pakistan in Argentina and the Minister for Agriculture Livestock and Fisheries of Argentina.
The additional secretary, on behalf of Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, extended an invitation to the foreign minister of Argentina to visit Pakistan at a mutually convenient date.
