PARIS, July 7: Pakistan and France on Thursday expressed identical views on key international issues and agreed to enhance cooperation in economic, defence and education sectors.

Foreign Minister Khurshid M. Kasuri, who is on his first official visit to France on the invitation of his counterpart Douste-Blazy, said: “We discussed at length the cooperation in the past and the need to continue and strengthen it in further.”

He said despite killing, by terrorists, of French engineers associated with the Agosta submarine project in Karachi the response of French authorities was very encouraging. He said Pakistan Air Force had one of the largest concentrations of France-made Mirage aircraft and the two countries were currently engaged in joint production of Agosta submarines.

Expressing satisfaction over his visit, Mr Kasuri said there was concurrence of views between the two countries on major international issues like Palestine, Afghanistan and Iran’s nuclear programme. He said he briefed the meeting about Pakistan’s role in the war against terrorism.

“I explained them the real difficulties in Afghanistan and they now have a better understanding of the issue,” he said, adding that Pakistan desired gas pipelines from and trade with Central Asia through Afghanistan and, therefore, had a stake in its peace and stability.

“We want to further increase our trade with Afghanistan which has grown by 7000 per cent to $1.5 billion in the past few years,” he said, adding that there was a need for better intelligence sharing to control movement on Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

Kasuri said both the countries had similarity of views on the Middle East situation.

“The reaction of the Israeli forces is far too great ... it is disproportionate,” he said, adding that Pakistan was in favour of a two-state solution — a viable and independent Palestinian state living in peace with Israel—and France had exactly the same approach toward the issue.

He said many French private sector companies were investing in Pakistan while the trade between the two countries had crossed $1 billion mark.

Mr Kasuri also met with President of the French Senate Christian Poncelet and discussed with him ways to reinforce relationship between Pakistan and France. Kasuri briefed him on situation in Afghanistan, Pakistan-India peace process and Iran’s nuclear issue.

In his discussions with the President of French National Assembly Jean-Louis Debre, Kasuri highlighted the great potential for upgrading bilateral relationship to a strategic partnership.

In his meeting with Vice President of Foreign Relations Committee Paul Quiles of the French National Assembly, Kasuri stressed promotion of greater inter-faith harmony.