ISLAMABAD – British Prime Minister David Cameron will arrive in Pakistan today (Tuesday) on a day-long visit to discuss important bilateral, regional and global issues and to clinch a formal agreement on enhanced strategic dialogue.
Prime Minister Cameron will hold talks with President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, during which ways to enhance interaction at the political level, strengthen trade, investment and cooperation in the education and health sectors will be discussed. The British PM is visiting Pakistan on the invitation of his Pakistani counterpart.
“Pakistan attaches considerable importance to the British prime minister’s visit and the close cooperative relationship with the United Kingdom,” Foreign Office Spokeswoman Tehmina Janjua said in a statement on Monday. Another Pakistani official said on condition of anonymity that leaders from the two countries, after having formal agreement on strategic dialogue, would be holding the inaugural session of significant talks.
He said the format of the dialogue envisaged an annual summit and bi-annual foreign ministers talks, adding that during the strategic dialogue, both sides would discuss the expansion of economic and defence ties along with relations in other fields. The UK has already announced doubling its development aid over the next four years, which will make Pakistan the highest recipient of British aid by 2015 with an annual assistance of £446 million.
Cameron’s Islamabad visit comes around nine months after he engaged in a diplomatic row with the Pakistani leadership over the remarks he made in India during his visit in July that elements in Pakistan were promoting the “export of terror”.
However, in the wake of the serious diplomatic row, the British prime minister and President Zardari tried to put a show of unity after their meeting in London in August, saying the bond between Pakistan and Britain was unbreakable.
It was then that the British prime minister accepted an invitation by President Zardari to visit Pakistan and agreed to a yearly summit to strengthen the ties between London and Islamabad.
