Baghdad Foreign Minister Fouad Hussein stressed the need to activate the Iraqi-Pakistani joint committee.
A statement by the Ministry said that “the Foreign Minister met his Pakistani counterpart Makhdomshah Mahmud Qureshi on the sidelines of the Antalya Diplomatic Forum, and discussed with him ways to strengthen and develop bilateral relations on issues of common interest, including the economic aspect, in order to achieve the common interest of the two friendly countries.
The Minister pointed out that “Pakistan is a key and important partner for Iraq, and the two countries have long-standing relations and common factors, including: confronting terrorism and extremism.”
The statement said that “the two sides stressed the need to activate the Iraqi-Pakistani joint committee, and expedite the completion of agreements and memoranda of understanding between the two countries,” noting that “the two sides also discussed a number of files of joint cooperation in the field of energy, the issue of religious tourism and ways to facilitate granting entry visas to Pakistani visitors, those wishing to visit the holy shrines in Iraq, because of their great importance to Muslims in the world, and they discussed activating a direct flight from Baghdad to Islamabad and vice versa, and activating economic and commercial cooperation between the two countries.
For his part, the Pakistani Foreign Minister expressed his country’s “aspiration for more joint cooperation with Iraq in all fields, the most important of which is cooperation in the field of combating terrorism and religious tourism.”
Source: National Iraqi News Agency