Additional Secretary of the Foreign Ministry of Pakistan Munawar Saeed Bhatti underlined his country’s close cooperation with Iran, and said western resolutions and sanctions cannot prevent economic cooperation among the members of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) which are due to convene in Tehran.
“Economic committees will be set up in the NAM summit for cooperation among the NAM member states and the UN and the US resolutions cannot prevent this,” Bhatti told FNA on Sunday.
The 16th NAM summit is being held in the Iranian capital, Tehran, from August 26 to 31.
Underlining the strong age-old ties between Tehran and Islamabad, Bhatti said, “Iran is not only Pakistan’s neighbor but also its brother. The historical background of the relations between the two countries dates back to two centuries ago and there are abundant cultural and historical commonalities between the two countries’ nations.”
Bilateral trade volume between Pakistan and Iran stood at about $265 million in 2011.
The Iranian side has announced its readiness to export energy and electricity to Pakistan.
Iranian Ambassador to Pakistan Ali Reza Haqiqian in his remarks in May urged a rapid expansion of the trade exchanges between Tehran and Islamabad, saying that the two countries’ trade should increase to 10 billion dollars from the existing over one billion dollars.
Addressing the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Haqiqian said that talks on gas and electricity projects were well on way and would be materialized soon.
The Ambassador said that the business community in the two countries would have to increase interaction to share their experiences in the larger interests of the people of two brotherly nations who have many commonalities.
He said that the volume of mutual trade between Iran and Pakistan does not match the level of their brotherly relations.
Haqiqian said that both countries and their respective trade bodies would have to focus on expansion of trade by holding single country exhibitions or through trade delegations to each others country.