Pak-India ties: Economic cooperation and trade to take things forward

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's Advisor to the Prime Minister on National Security and Foreign Affairs, Sartaj Aziz met with Indian Minister for External Affairs, Salman Khurshid on Tuesday to discuss avenues of mutual cooperation, including bilateral trade,  said a statement by Pakistan's foreign ministry. 

The first high-level bilateral meeting since the new government assumed office in Pakistan sought to identify ways of building better relations between the two neighbouring countries.

Khurshid brought with him warm tidings from Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and reiterated Indian government's desire to engage with Pakistan on all issues.

Aziz said that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had asked him to treat improved relations with India as a matter of high priority and to resume the process left incomplete in 1999 when Sharif's government was ousted by a military coup.

Trade and economic cooperation were amongst the matters discussed by the two dignitaries, who maintained that the Pakistan-India Joint Business Council, that just concluded a session in Islamabad, would serve as an important mechanism to take things forward.

Referring to the  ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) meeting in Brunei where the two were invited, both leaders said that regional cooperation would give an impetus to the economic development and prosperity of South and South-East Asia.

The meeting ended on assurances of further coordinating in the next few months.