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ISLAMABAD, Oct 18: Malaysia and Pakistan on Friday agreed to strengthen the bonds of friendship and economic relations.
The agreement reached during the meeting between President Gen Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who arrived here on a two-day visit.
Welcoming the prime minister, President Musharraf said Pakistan and Malaysia were bound together by religious, cultural and economic bonds.
He said the visit would enhance existing fraternal economic ties and cooperation in various other fields of mutual bilateral interest.
Dr Mahathir praised the economic reforms introduced by the government of Pakistan which had stabilized economy and expanded country’s earnings, besides creating a tremendous credibility for the country.—APP
PRESS CONFERENCE: Later, Dr Mahathir told a press conference which he addressed with President Musharraf that Muslim countries were major oil producers in the world and (they) could use it as a weapon to influence international issues, Faraz Hashmi adds.
“Muslim countries, if combined, can control supply of oil to the whole world,” he said, recalling that the oil producing countries had effectively used oil as a weapon in the past to mould the world opinion.
In reply to a question on the Kashmir issue, Dr Mahathir said Malaysia would stick to its known stance that the issue should be resolved through the Security Council resolutions.
The prime minister politely ruled out the possibility of his country playing any mediatory role in the resolution of the Kashmir issue. “Malaysia is a small country and we cannot change the mind of people,” he said.
Commenting on the theory of the clash of civilization, he regretted that the terrorists were linked to the religion. He said that terrorism in Ireland would never have been called as catholic terrorism or in Japan by a cult as Buddhist terrorism. He said it was very unfortunate that an act of terrorism if committed by a Muslim was branded as Islamic terrorism.
Dr Mahathir called upon the Muslim states to focus on economic development and demonstrate it to the world that Muslims were equally capable people. He underlined the need for changing this wrong perception, saying it could be done only through achieving economic development.
As regards his one-to-one talks with President Musharraf, the Malaysian leader said they had identified areas for increasing the trade relations between the two countries and rectify the trade imbalance with Pakistan. “We are trying to address the trade imbalance,” he said.
He said Pakistan and Malaysia had shared views on many regional and international issues.
NON-PROLIFERATION: President Musharraf said that Pakistan was adhering to the policy of nuclear non-proliferation and had not transferred the technology to any country.
The reports that Pakistan had helped North Korea in the development of nuclear technology were “absolutely baseless,” President Musharraf told the joint press conference.
The president recalled that Pakistan had stated on many occasions that it would not proliferate nuclear technology to any country and it stood by the commitment.
In his opening remarks, President Musharraf noted that Pakistan and Malaysia had commonality of views on many international issues.
He said they had discussed various issues and agreed to enhance trade and economic relations in different fields, including information technology, construction, bio-technology and telecommunications.
