Pakistan, Spain stress inter-faith talks: Aziz meets Zapatero
By M. Ziauddin
MADRID, April 7: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and his Spanish counterpart Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero on Friday jointly made a passionate plea for promoting dialogue among civilizations and religions.
They said such a dialogue was necessary to establish lasting interfaith and inter-civilizational harmony and world peace.
They reiterated commitment to fight terrorism and to work for improving relations and understanding among the followers of different religions.
The Spanish prime minister explained how his government had handled the cartoon controversy in his country and pre-empted attempts by some quarters to turn it into an ugly confrontation.
Mr Aziz said Islam was a most misunderstood religion and it was one of the objectives of his government to clear the negative image of Islam and present it in its true perspective to the world.
The two prime ministers had an hour-long meeting before Mr Aziz left for Segovia, a retreat 70 km from Madrid, for the second phase of a high-level panel meeting for fundamental review of the UN’s operational work. The first phase was held in New York on April 4-6.
The two prime ministers agreed that a lasting solution of the threat of terrorism could not be found unless its root causes were addressed.
They agreed to explore the possibility of forging cooperation in security matters and establishing an air link between Pakistan and Spain.
Mr Zapatero said his country was keen to boost ties with Pakistan, also in the field of trade, and he would send a mission to Pakistan to explore the possibilities of expanding bilateral trade.
Mr Aziz thanked the Spanish prime minister for assistance Spain had provided to Pakistan following last year’s earthquake.
INVESTMEMT: Later, speaking at the Spanish chamber of businessmen, Mr Aziz invited the Spanish private sector to invest in Pakistan and listed a number of fields with scope for profitable activity.
He briefed the Spanish businessmen on reforms Pakistan had undertaken for liberalization, deregulation and privatization of its economy.
Earlier, in an interaction with the Spanish media, Mr Aziz said the clandestine network of Dr A.Q. Khan’s had been smashed and, therefore, Pakistan should not be made to suffer for something which was now history.
About Pakistan’s position on Iran’s nuclear programme, he said Islamabad supported Tehran’s right to acquire nuclear energy, but felt Iran had no reason or need to build nuclear weapons.
“But we oppose the use of force to resolve such issues,” said the prime minister.
He said Iraq’s territorial integrity and sovereignty should be respected and protected so that energy supplies from the oil-rich country kept flowing without any damaging disruption to the world economy.
