ISLAMABAD, May 2: President General Pervez Musharraf and his Uzbek counterpart Islam Karimov on Tuesday vowed to expand commerce and economic relations between Islamabad and Tashkent. President Karimov also voiced support for Pakistan’s efforts to attain full membership of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).

After holding a round of talks the two leaders told reporters that Pakistan and Uzbekistan had agreed to coordinate efforts to fight terror for the common goal of development in the region.

President Musharraf said Pakistan would develop rail and road links with the Central Asian state as part of its efforts to take bilateral trade to new levels and also provide access to Uzbekistan to the world through its ports.

“We expressed the mutual desire to develop road and rail links and Pakistan has offered Uzbekistan to use our seaports to develop commerce with other regions and the world,” the president said.

The two leaders also oversaw the inking of a series of agreements and MoUs on intensifying bilateral cooperation in a number of fields, including trade and economic relations and fighting global terrorism.

They also signed a joint statement and expressed a common resolve to reinforce bilateral ties.

In the context of establishing durable peace and promoting regional trade, the two sides shared the desire for peace and stability in Afghanistan.

In reply to a question on cooperation in counter-terrorism, President Musharraf said the two sides can share intelligence “so that we can deal with the financial linkages of terrorists”.

On fighting extremism, he said that each country had to fight the malaise in accordance with its own peculiar environment and added that Pakistan had adopted a holistic strategy to effectively address it on long-term basis.

President Musharraf thanked the Uzbek leader for Tashkent’s expression of support to Pakistan in securing full membership of SCO.

In his remarks, President Karimov said Uzbekistan fully supported President Musharraf’s vision of enlightened moderation as a way out of international turmoil.—APP