DAVOS: Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif met the President of Swiss Confederation Doris Leuthard on the sidelines of annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos.
They discussed a range of bilateral and regional issues, including trade and investment opportunities in Pakistan, and the membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) which will co-chaired by Switzerland in the future.
The prime minister complimented Switzerland’s objective, non-discriminatory and criteria-based approach on membership to the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).
“I hope that as part of the NSG troika, Switzerland would continue to maintain this principled stand, especially when it takes over the Chair of the group later this year,” stated the Prime Minster.
NSG works on the basis of consensus. The current NSG Chair (South Korea) together with the previous (Argentina) and the future Chair (Switzerland) form the NSG Troika.
Swiss President stated that they are impressive by the progress despite different challenges faced by Pakistan. “Pakistan is progressing on the right track and we appreciate your economic road map,” stated Ms. Leuthard.
“We acknowledge and appreciate efforts of your government to promote stability in Pakistan and the region,”she remarked.
She said that Swiss companies are willing to work in Pakistan with such a positive and enabling environment. “We’re very keen to work with your government on different hydro-power projects,” stated the Swiss President.
PM Sharif assured that Pakistan is committed to facilitate and support an Afghan-led peace and reconciliation process as envisaged under the Quadrilateral framework.
He said that security of Pakistan is directly linked to peace and stability in Afghanistan.
“Pakistan has continued to host millions of Afghan refugees for more than three decades. We are still hosting around 1.5 million refugees and about an equal number of undocumented Afghans,” he said.
PM Sharif reaffirmed that there is a need to create necessary pull-factors inside Afghanistan for sustained repatriation of Afghan refugees.
The Swiss President hoped that that Pakistan will continue to play its role to promote good relationship with Afghanistan.
PM Sharif also said that Pakistan wants peaceful and amicable resolution of all outstanding issues with India, and expressed concern at the gross human rights violations by Indian forces in Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
He called on the international community to take notice of the gravity of the situation and call on India to respect human rights of the people of Kashmir and implement the UN Security Council resolutions.
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