Pakistan and Egypt have decided to further promote their bilateral relations and agreed to convene 2nd Joint Ministerial Commission meeting in Islamabad before the year end to speed up the process of setting up a Joint Business Council (JBC), says an official statement. The two-day third round of political consultations between Pakistan and Egypt was held in Islamabad according to a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) singed in 2001 to provide a useful mechanism to regularly exchange views on bilateral cooperation, and to coordinate their respective position on regional and international issues. Ambassador Aly Houssam El-Hefny, Assistant Foreign Minister for Asian Affairs led the Egyptian delegation, while Ambassador Manzar Shafiq, Additional Secretary (Middle East and Africa), Foreign Ministry, headed the Pakistan delegation. The two sides reviewed the state of bilateral cooperation in various fields with a view to further intensifying these ties for their mutual benefits. They agreed that frequent and regular high level visits from both sides were necessary to bolster bilateral relations in the political and economic fields. The Assistant Foreign Minister of Egypt also called on Foreign Minister Khurshid M Kasuri to deliver a letter from his Egyptian counterpart, and held a meeting with the Foreign Secretary. Expressing satisfaction over the steady increase in bilateral trade and private sector investments in the past few years, the two sides undertook to make efforts for further consolidation of their economic relations. The deliberations also covered a range of regional and international issues of mutual interest and concern. The Pakistan side provided a comprehensive briefing on the current developments relating to Pakistan-India composite dialogue and on the importance of an early resolution of the core dispute of Kashmir. Both sides strongly condemned the Israeli attacks on Lebanon and Gaza, and stressed the need for an immediate ceasefire and withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Lebanese territory.
