Iran Press/Asia: Pakistan and Iran on Tuesday agreed to enhance their trade relations and improve rail connectivity to achieve a target of $5 billion annual bilateral trade.
Pakistani side was led by Deputy Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua while the Iranian side by its Deputy Foreign Minister Seyyed Abbas Araghchi.
Related news: Pakistan FM calls for strengthening of bilateral relations with Iran
Two sides agreed to adopt measures to enhance bilateral trade to achieve the annual target of US 5 billion dollars through facilitation of business communities, scaling down of trade barriers and speedy progress on facilitating preferential trade were discussed in detail.
Pakistan Foreign Ministry in a statement said the understanding came at the tenth round of Iran-Pakistan Political Consultations in Islamabad. “Bilateral Political Consultation between Iran and Pakistan is one of the several important institutional mechanisms to regularly review and chart the way forward in various areas of cooperation,” the statement said.
"Pakistan and Iran have been affected adversely by the 40-year conflict and instability in Afghanistan, which has resulted in serious challenges including millions of Afghan refugees, the narcotics trade, illegal migration, and the rise of new terrorist outfits like Daesh (ISIS) in the war-ridden country," Mohammad Faisal, Pakistan's Foreign Ministry spokesman, said in a statement.
Both countries also agreed that their Joint Economic Commission should meet early next year. They also discussed ways and means to facilitate the growing number of Zaireen (pilgrims) traveling every year to Iran from Pakistan.
Views were also exchanged on other important regional and international issues including the situation following the US unilateral withdrawal from the nuclear deal, the situation of human rights in Kashmir and the conflict in the Middle East.
Earlier in morning, (December 4, 2018) Iranian Deputy Foreign Ministry met with Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, discussed bilateral relation and regional issues including expanding bilateral economic cooperation's after US withdrawal from JCPOA.
In Dec 01, 2018, Pakistan said US Sanctions have no effect on Iran-Pakistan relations.
"Iran experienced sanctions before, and on that time both country's markets were opened for bilateral cooperation. So I suppose that sanctions would not have a great deal of effects on Iran- Pakistan relations," Head of Pakistan-Iran friendship council Assad Zahir noted. 211/103
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