Pakistan and Canada emphasised the importance of cooperation in trade and investment in the sixth round of Bilateral Political Consultations between the two countries held in Islamabad on Saturday.

According to the Foreign Office (FO), United Nations Special Secretary Ambassador Nabeel Munir and the director general (Americas) participated in the consultations, while the Canadian side was represented by Assistant Deputy Minister (Indo-Pacific) from Global Affairs Canada, Ambassador Weldon Epp and High Commissioner Tarik Ali Khan.

A press release by the FO said that the two sides expressed satisfaction over the steady growth of bilateral relations, marked by recent “substantive interactions” between Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar and Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand.

“They noted that these engagements had provided strategic guidance and momentum to the partnership and reaffirmed their shared commitment to further deepen these ties,” the FO statement said.

Recognising the significant untapped potential in the relationship, both sides expressed their readiness to improve the implementation of existing agreements and identify new avenues for cooperation, the statement added.

“In this regard, they emphasised the importance of strengthening trade and economic cooperation, including greater support to business communities, facilitation of the trade delegations and enhanced institutional linkages,” it said.

The two sides also emphasised cooperation in “trade and investment, agriculture and agri-tech, mining and minerals, energy, climate change, artificial intelligence and information and communications technology, skilled workforce development, education and research, tourism and people-to-people exchanges” as key drivers for taking the relationship forward.

They also underscored the central role of investment in achieving sustainable and mutually beneficial growth, and agreed to work towards encouraging the private sector to explore emerging opportunities, according to the FO.

The countries exchanged views on the evolving global and regional environment and discussed key multilateral issues of mutual interest, agreeing to maintain regular consultations.

They further expressed confidence that sustained engagement would lead to new progress in the bilateral partnership.

In November, the two countries had issued a joint statement saying that they had agreed to facilitate the export of Canadian canola to Pakistan.

Canada has been looking to open new markets for the commodity after China announced preliminary anti-dumping duties on Canadian canola imports in August, a year after Canada said it would levy a 100 per cent tariff on imports of Chinese electric vehicles.