PRIME Minister Imran Khan, who is known for his persuasive communication skills, put across Pakistan’s point of view on a number of issues of mutual and regional interest during his wide-ranging talks with his Sri Lankan counterpart Mahinda Rajapaksa as well as joint news conference, which would surely help bring the two friendly countries still closer and enable them to harmonize their policies on important issues.
He dwelt at length on different aspects of regional connectivity, the challenge of terrorism and extremism, learning from each other’s experiences and promotion of trade and investment to the mutual benefit of the two countries.
The visit amply strengthened the impression that Prime Minister Imran Khan has a lot of goodwill in Sri Lanka. This fact was highlighted by the PM himself when he pointed out that he was not a stranger to Sri Lanka as he had been visiting the country from his cricketing period and played matches.
It was not a coincident that he became the first head of government to visit Sri Lanka after President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa assumed their respective offices last year and tweets of the Sri Lankan PM before the visit proved that he was eagerly waiting for an opportunity to meet the Pakistani leader.
Imran reciprocated his gestures of goodwill and noteworthy the Sri Lankan Prime Minister himself received his Pakistani counterpart on his arrival at Bandaranaike International Airport where he was given a rousing welcome.
The two leaders have substantive discussions on different aspects of bilateral relations and agreed on the need to enhance cooperation in diverse fields.
Regional connectivity is no doubt a key player in boosting regional trade and investment and that was why Imran Khan highlighted the importance of Sri Lanka joining the historic Pakistan-China initiative of CPEC that has already started paying dividends to Pakistan in different ways.
The focus of the CPEC is development, expansion and modernization of Gwadar Port where a number of projects of far-reaching importance are under implementation in the framework of CPEC.
Completion of these projects, in the near future, would transform Gwadar into a hub for regional connectivity and that is why Pakistan Prime Minister urged Colombo to benefit from the potential of reaching out to Central Asia and other regions through this port and other ventures under CPEC.
During the extensive consultations held at the Temple Trees (Prime Minister’s Office), Prime Minister Imran Khan and his Sri Lankan counterpart reaffirmed their resolve to work together across a broad range of areas.
They acknowledged the immense opportunities and vast potential for mutually beneficial collaboration in the areas of trade and investment, IT and human resource development, agriculture and science and technology, security and defence cooperation, and culture and tourism.
Sri Lanka is one of those countries of the world that has been able to develop its tourism sector on modern lines despite a longer internal conflict (terrorism) and it has active plans to increase tourist inflows from about four million now to seven million in 2025 and earning a revenue target of $10 billion from the sector.
Prime Minister Imran Khan has also launched some projects aimed at tourism promotion and Sri Lanka can extend a helping hand in realization of the goals that the PTI government has set in the sector.
It was in this context that appreciating the rich Buddhist heritage of Pakistan and existence of great potential for religious tourism, it was agreed to enhance mutual collaboration including through sharing expertise in the hospitality industry, training and capacity-building.
The two countries also signed important MoUs on cooperation in the fields of tourism, investment, education and technology and one hopes these would be translated first into formal agreements and then implemented with the same enthusiasm and spirit that was demonstrated by the two leaders.
This should be done before or during the visit to Pakistan by the Sri Lankan Prime Minister who has accepted the invitation for the purpose extended by Pakistani Premier.
There are really bright prospects for taking the mutual cooperation between the two friendly countries to new heights as, unlike some other countries, the relationship is based on equality and mutuality of interests.
In this context, Pakistan’s shifting focus from geo-strategic to geo-economics was underscored and the three pillars of Pakistan’s economic security vision – peace, development partnerships and connectivity – were emphasized.
The two countries were also members of the SAARC, which has become almost non-functional due to the unrealistic attitude of India, the Prime Minister emphasized the importance of resolving disputes through dialogue and promoting the vision of peace, progress and prosperity in South Asia and beyond.
The two sides reiterated their commitment to the principles and objectives of the SAARC Charter and agreed on the importance of taking forward the SAARC process for regional cooperation. We hope there would be proper follow-up of the understanding reached during the visit to boost cooperation in diverse fields.
