Govt seeks greater market access

ALI HUSSAIN

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Wednesday sought greater access to its products in Australian market, as the country’s Foreign Minister Julie Bishop announced AUD$24 million in development assistance to further strengthen bilateral ties in diverse fields including trade and economy.

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, who arrived here on a two-day official visit, held official talks with Prime Minister’s Adviser on National Security and Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz in which Pakistan called for greater market access to its products in Australian market.

Speaking at a joint news conference after the talks, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop announced a package of AUD24 million in development assistance to Pakistan including AUD 19.9 million in aid to support Pakistan’s efforts for facilitating regional trade and investment as well for the rehabilitation of its border areas.

She said that AUD$9.9 million of this development assistance will support Australia’s flagship aid for trade initiative to Pakistan delivered in partnership with the World Bank, Ministry of Commerce and the Pakistan Trade and Investment Program (May 2015 — 2018), adding it also includes developing a national trade strategy for Pakistan.

She further said that AUD$10 million of this development assistance will help the government of Pakistan to restore damaged infrastructure, improve local and provincial service delivery and support the livelihoods of populations affected by floods and conflict in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, FATA and Balochistan, through the World Bank Multi-Donor Trust Fund for the border areas program.

According to her, Australia has contributed AUD$31 million to the fund since 2010, which aims to assist and stabilize the border areas of Pakistan, adding the AUD$10 million investment brings Australia’s total support to the Multi-Donor Trust Fund for the border areas program to AUD$41.3 million.

About the talks, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said the two sides held ‘very productive’ discussions on cooperation in all areas particularly in the fields of trade, investment and economy.

“Australia attaches great importance to its bilateral relations with Pakistan…We have long been friends and want to diversify cooperation in different fields,” she said.

She said that both Australia and Pakistan have strong and long standing defense relations, adding the two countries have common interests in countering transnational crimes including drug and human smuggling.

“My visit and meeting with Pakistani leaders is aimed at discussing the growing strength of our bilateral partnership and important regional and international issues”, she said, adding she was looking forward to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s visit to Australia at the end of this year or early next year.

To a question, Julie Bishop recognized the sacrifices rendered by Pakistan both in terms of lives and economy in the war against terrorism. She voiced concerns over the rise in terror outfit. Daish also known as ISIS and the outfit is more dangerous and brutal. She said that Australia was also deeply concerned over the rise of the Daish as around 100 of its citizens have also joined the terror outfit.

She further said that her country is working with the international community to fight such terror organizations, adding that Australia is hosting a summit on countering extremism in June in Sydney.

To another question, she said that her visit to the country was a demonstration of her country’s policy that relationship with Pakistan is important, adding Australia wants a peaceful and safe Pakistan.

She said that under a plan her country is sending Australian students to different countries including Pakistan. “These visits of our students will give a message to the world that Pakistan is a place to visit”, she said.

On Afghanistan, the Australian Foreign Minister said that it was in the interest of the region that both Pakistan and Afghanistan work together to manage the porous border and effectively fight the menace of terrorism. She said that during her recent talks with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, she found President Ghani very positive to work together with Pakistan.

To another question, she said that the Kashmir needs to be resolved and her country will encourage both Pakistan and India to resolve all issues through negotiations. However, she made it clear that Australia does not want to take sides, rather wants both the countries to resolve their disputes bilaterally.

When asked about Australian-India civil nuclear cooperation, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop pointed out that her country is a power house and wants to export energy to the world. Currently, she added both Australia and India are negotiating the deal, adding her country will extend the facility to India under strict controls.

However, in his remarks on the question, Advisor on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz said that Pakistan and Australia have their bilateral forums on defence cooperation where Islamabad would be sharing its concerns over the Australia-India civil nuclear program as well as Pakistan’s expectations in the field of civil nuclear technology.

“We agreed on expanding trade and economic ties between Pakistan and Australia…I urge Foreign Minister Bishop to consider proposals for providing greater market access to Pakistani products in the Australian market,” he said.

He further said that Pakistan and Australia enjoy excellent relations, which are based on mutual respect and shared interests. During the talks, he said that the two sides have agreed to further consolidate the existing friendly people to people contacts, underpinned by the presence of 80,000 strong Pakistani diaspora and around 13,000 Pakistani students in Australia.

Aziz said that the talks focused on the need for regular political exchanges between the two countries including high level visits. “We feel that exchange of parliamentary visits is important,” he said.

Appreciating Australian development cooperation program for Pakistan, the Adviser said Pakistan intends to strengthen interaction with Australia in agriculture, livestock and water resource management.

“We want both the countries to focus more on sports and culture,” he said, adding both the countries share common perceptions in combating terrorism. He said both the countries have resolved to continue cooperation in countering terrorism and transnational crimes. He said that the two sides also discussed regional and global issues of importance.

“Foreign Minister Bishop’s visit to Pakistan will lead to further enhancing our bilateral relations in all fields of importance…the visit not only provided a good opportunity to review bilateral relations, but also discuss matters relating to the visit of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to Australia”, he said, adding the Prime Minister will visit Australia this year or early next year.

The visiting Australian Foreign Minister will also meet Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Army Chief General Raheel Sharif while she would leave for Lahore today (Thursday) to hold talks with Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif on issues of mutual importance.