The meeting also discussed preparation for the upcoming strategic dialogue to further strengthen the partnership with the US with special focus on expanding trade and investment cooperation.
The sixth round of ministerial level Pakistan-US Strategic Dialogue is scheduled to be held on February 29 this year in Washington. Advisor to the Prime Minister Sartaj Aziz and the US Secretary of State, John Kerry, will lead their respective sides in the dialogue.
This will be the third annual meeting since the government assumed office in 2013. The six segments of the Strategic Dialogue, which focuses on cooperation in economy and finance, energy, education, science and technology, law enforcement and counter terrorism, security, strategic stability and non-proliferation and defence.
The meeting was attended by Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal, Petroleum Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and federal secretaries dealing with commerce, defence, EAD, finance, interior, planning & development, water & power, BOI, Chairman FBR, and representatives of NACTA, ministry of climate change and the GHQ.
The statement said that Prime Minister’s visit to the US in October 2015 had provided necessary impetus and direction to the dialogue mechanism. The upcoming meeting will afford an important opportunity to take stock of the entire gamut of Pakistan’s bilateral relations with the United States.
Pakistan elected vice chair of UNEP CPR Bureau
Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the United Nations Environment Programme, Raza Bashir Tarar, was unanimously elected as vice chair of the Committee of Permanent Representatives Bureau from the Asia Pacific Group in Nairobi, foreign ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.
Pakistan’s mission in Nairobi is accredited as Permanent Mission to the United Nations Office in Nairobi (UNON), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN Habitat).
During the course of the OECPR, the Permanent Representative, in his capacity as Vice Chair, will also chair negotiations on a cluster of resolutions expected to be tabled in United Nations Environment Assembly II.
