Pakistan, UK discuss ways to boost security, trade relations
Britain is in talks to boost trade and security cooperation with Pakistan, Foreign Minister Boris Johnson said on Thursday, part of London’s efforts to improve trade links with emerging market countries.
Britain has been seeking to bolster global trade ties following its June referendum vote to leave the European Union, with the government seeking to broaden relations with fast-growing economies outside Europe.
On a visit to Pakistan, Johnson said talks were progressing on plans to increase annual trade beyond £2.5 billion ($3.11 billion) per year.
“Consider the size of the Pakistan economy, how fast it’s growing, look at the size of the UK economy, we could do so much better,” Johnson said in Islamabad before meeting Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
The two countries have had strong cultural ties since Pakistan gained independence from Britain in 1947, with more than one million people of Pakistani origin currently residing in Britain.
Pakistan’s sputtering economy has rebounded in recent years, helped by improved security in the country, and growth is expected at just over 5 per cent this fiscal year, the highest rate since 2008.
Economic expansion is set to increase due to a $54 billion investment well from China in a network of road, rail and energy projects that will form an economic corridor linking western China with Pakistan’s Arabian Sea port at Gwadar.
Sartaj Aziz, Pakistan’s top foreign policy official, said the two nations were discussing how to improve security cooperation.
He said Prime Minister Sharif has invited his British counterpart Theresa May to travel to Pakistan next year to further boost ties.
Johnson also called for an end to violence in Kashmir warning tensions between Pakistan and India are holding the region back from becoming an “incredible boomzone”.
Johnson spoke a day after at least nine people were killed in Pakistani-administered Kashmir when a civilian bus was hit by cross-border fire by Indian forces.
Johnson warned former colonial power Britain could not act as a mediator in the nearly 70-year-old dispute over the Himalayan region, saying it must be up to India and Pakistan to find a “lasting solution”. He voiced concern over incidents “on both sides” of the Line of Control (LoC).
“We call for an end to the violence and for both sides to exercise restraint,” he said. — AFP, Reuters