ISLAMABAD: Pakis­tan and Uzbekistan expre­ssed the resolve to finalise the Strategic Partnership Agr­ee­­ment at the earliest to promote regional economic integration on Wednesday, soon after caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq arrived in Tashkent to attend the 16th Economic Cooperation Organisation (ECO) Summit.

PM Kakar, accompanied by Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas Jilani and Comm­erce Minister Gohar Ejaz, was received by Prime Minister Abdullah Nagma­tovich Aripov at Tashkent International Airport.

According to the PM Office, Mr Kakar met Uzbekistan President Shavkat Mirziyoyev on the sidelines of the summit. Both reaffirmed their commitment to play an active role for the regional connectivity and exchanged views on bilateral political, economic, defence and security cooperation.

The premier underlined that the recent operationalisation of preferential and transit trade agree­ments would boost bilateral trade and transit trade in addition to streamlining the ECO Trade Agreement.

Both sides reaffirmed commitment to the early completion of Uzbekistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan railway project. They also discussed the ongoing humanitarian situation in Gaza and other regional and global developments.

Later, in another meeting on the sidelines of the summit, Mr Kakar and ECO secretary general Khusrav Noziri discussed the situation in Kashmir and Middle East, besides reviewing recent developments on the trade, connectivity and economic fronts in the organisation.

Published in Dawn, November 9th, 2023