FM Jilani, Kyrgyz president discuss strengthening multiple bilateral ties

Bishkek: Caretaker Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas Jilani on Wednesday called on President of Kyrgyzstan Sadyr Zhaparov wherein the two sides exchanged views on the current state and prospects of Kyrgyz-Pakistani bilateral cooperation.

The meeting took place on the sidelines of the 22nd meeting of the Council of Heads of Government (CHG) of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization being held in Bishkek. On Thursday, Pakistan will assume the Chair of CHG SCO.

Honored to call on Kyrgyz President S. Japarov. Conveyed warm greetings of Pakistan leadership/people, and appreciation for Kyrgyz leadership of multilateral forums. Mutual desire to build stronger Eco,Pol, Edu relations. Reiterated invitation to the President to visit Pakistan pic.twitter.com/MV6LuMMPfK

— Jalil Abbas Jilani (@JalilJilani) October 25, 2023

 The meeting will be attended by the Heads of Government of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, vice-president of Iran and foreign ministers of Pakistan and India. SCO Observer States namely Belarus and Mongolia as well as Guest State Turkmenistan will also attend the meeting.

In a post on X, Foreign Minister Jilani said that in the meeting, he conveyed warm greetings of Pakistan leadership and people. Both sides expressed a mutual desire to build stronger economic, political, and educational relations.

 The Kyrgyz leader noted that Pakistan occupied an important place in the system of international and regional relations, and Kyrgyzstan was interested in developing cooperation in bilateral and multilateral formats, according to Kabar, the national news agency of Kyrgyzstan. He emphasized great opportunities for increasing the volume of mutual trade between the countries. In this context, Zhaparov expressed interest in diversification of export-import positions with Pakistan and active work with Pakistani investors on promising projects.

 Jalil Abbas Jilani conveyed warm words of greetings to the head of state from President Arif Alvi and Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar. He expressed Pakistan’s readiness to further establish relations between the two countries in all spheres of mutual interest. Foreign Minister Jilani extended an invitation to Sadyr Zhaparov to visit Pakistan.

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Jilani also met SCO Secretary-General Zhang Ming and discussed areas of critical and practical cooperation, including connectivity, poverty alleviation, energy and others. He reaffirmed Pakistan’s commitment to Shanghai Spirit for Regional Development and a shared future. The secretary-general assured full support during Pakistan’s chair of the Council of Heads of Government.

The foreign minister also had an “extremely productive” meeting with his Kyrgyz counterpart wherein two sides agreed on a mechanism to enhance the bilateral political, economic, and connectivity relationship. Both countries have commonalities of views on regional and global issues, FM Jilani wrote on X.