President calls for fostering trade, economic linkages with Ethiopia

ISLAMABAD, JUL 24 (DNA) — President Dr Arif Alvi on Monday asked Pakistan’s Ambassador-designate to Ethiopia to foster trade and economic linkages with Ethiopia by facilitating and enhancing interactions between business communities of the two countries.

He also urged the ambassador to work towards increasing trade volume with Ethiopia by reaching out to their businesspersons for the import of Pakistani products. The president made these remarks while talking to Pakistan’s Ambassador-designate to the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia Mian Atif Sharif who called on him at the Aiwan-e-Sadr, President Secretariat Press Wing said in a press release.

Talking to the ambassador, the president said that Pakistan-Ethiopia bilateral ties were marked by common history, interests, and support for each other on various international fora. He said that the bilateral relations between the two countries needed to be further cemented by taking the mutual trade volume to its fullest potential.

The president also called for enhancing cooperation in the field of education and people-to-people contacts, adding that students in Ethiopia could benefit from online/video educational materials/courses of the Virtual University of Pakistan and Allama Iqbal Open University to enhance their skill sets.

He said that Pakistan’s offer of training young Ethiopian diplomats at the Foreign Service Academy and scholarships for banking courses would further help improve bilateral ties with Ethiopia.

The president asked the ambassador to create awareness in Ethiopia about the rising tide of Islamophobia in the world and the need for collective efforts to promote inter-faith harmony and mutual respect.

He also urged the newly-appointed envoy to highlight the human rights violations and atrocities being committed by India in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) as well as the maltreatment of minorities in India. — DNA