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| June 16, 2005 | Thursday | Jumadi-ul-Awwal 8, 1426 |
Islamabad, Beijing to work for UN reform
DOHA, June 15: Pakistan and China on Wednesday agreed to coordinate efforts to bring about a more democratic, inclusive and effective reform in the UN. During a meeting between Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri and Chinese Deputy Prime Minister Zeng Peiyan, who is leading the Chinese delegation to the Second South Summit in Doha, it was decided that all issues related to UN reform should come up before the heads of states’ meeting in September at the UN headquarters in New York.
Mr Kasuri and Mr Zeng agreed to coordinate the efforts to promote consensus-driven and holistic reform of the UN. They felt that the UN reform was far too important a matter to put artificial deadlines for concluding it.
On the sidelines of the summit, Mr Kasuri also met Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa and discussed the latest developments concerning the UN reform and expansion of the Security Council.
There was convergence on the viewpoint that any formula which envisaged exclusion of Muslim representation would not be acceptable to the OIC. Therefore, there was a need to work towards developing a formula, which gave adequate representation to the OIC countries.
In his meeting with Afghanistan’s Vice-President Ahmad Zia Masood, Mr Kasuri discussed matters of bilateral interest and the UN Security Council reform.
Recalling Pakistan’s assistance in organizing Afghan presidential elections, Mr Kasuri offered to extend similar assistance for the forthcoming parliamentary elections in Sept 2005.
He met Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Laxman Kadirgammar and they were satisfied with the date that had been finalized for the Saarc Summit.
Mr Kasuri met the foreign minister of South Africa and discussed bilateral relations and enhanced cooperation in various fields.
He invited his South African counterpart to visit Pakistan who accepted the invitation. Dates for the visit would be fixed later.
During meetings with Niger and Senegal foreign ministers, the UN reform was discussed.—APP
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