Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani and his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh on Tuesday expressed their desire to intensify the bilateral dialogue process for further engagements as they had an informal chat here, their second in two days at the Nuclear Security Summit.
Singh and Gilani had an “informal meeting” in Seoul, a brief statement issued by the Prime Minister’s media office in Islamabad said.
“Both the leaders expressed their desire to intensify the dialogue process for further engagements,” it said.
Singh and Gilani shook hands as they greeted each other during the photo-op for the top world leaders attending the summit in the South Korean capital.
Last night, the Prime Minister and his Pakistani counterpart Gilani had a “meet and greet” encounter prior to a dinner hosted for dignitaries attending the summit here.
“Prime Minister said hello to Mr Gilani,” Indian sources had said.
This was the first meeting between the two leaders since they met in the idyllic Addu resort in the Maldives where they had vowed to script “a new chapter” in their bilateral ties.
Prime Minister Gilani also held meetings with King Abdullah II of Jordan and Nguyen Tan Dung, prime minister of Vietnam, and discussed bilateral relations, agreeing to further enhance their ties in diverse fields.
Gilani told King Abdullah II of Jordan that there was a need to further enhance brotherly and friendly bilateral relations between the two countries. They also emphasised the need to promote ties in defence, economic and trade fields.
Referring to the Free Trade Agreement and Currency Swap Agreement between the two countries, the prime minister said these should be finalised at the earliest as it will give boost to trade and economic activities between the two countries.
King Abdullah agreed to this proposal and told Gilani that a minister from Jordan would be in touch with his counterpart in Pakistan to further negotiate on the mechanism of FTA and Currency Swap Agreement.
Gilani said cooperation in defence production between the two countries should be enhanced as the two counties had excellent track record in defence cooperation.
The prime minister said the two countries have commonalities in history, culture and religion and these are the strong bonds for brotherly relations between the two countries.
In his meeting with Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, Gilani discussed bilateral relations and both leaders agreed to expand their ties especially in trade, economic and defence sectors.
Gilani said Vietnam occupied a special place in Pakistan’s vision East Asia and added that Pakistan accorded high priority to relations with Vietnam.
The prime minister said, “We admire the achievements of Vietnam in all fields of life particularly its fast economic development in recent years.”
