Abdul Kadir Jailani terms connectivity important tool for enhanced bilateral relations
Zubair Qureshi
Indonesia’s Deputy Foreign Minister for Asia Pacific and African Affairs, Abdul Kadir Jailani has congratulated the people and the government of Pakistan on the auspicious occasion of the Pakistan Day and wished the country and its people success and prosperity.
The Deputy FM of Indonesia who was in Islamabad for attending the Organization of Islamic Cooperation member countries’ Foreign Ministers summit also attended the march past at the Parade Ground on Tuesday and said it was such an impressive show that it stirred in him feelings of patriotism.
Pakistan Observer, while taking advantage of the Deputy Foreign Minister’s presence in the town, had made a request to the embassy for an interview that was granted.
Indonesia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Abdul Kadir Jailani at the very outset appreciated the Pakistani government’s arrangements for hosting a successful, productive and quite interactive summit of the OIC Foreign Ministers.
“I met the Pakistani government’s leadership as well as my counterparts of many friendly countries during the sidelines of the summit and there was a general agreement for peace, prosperity, cooperation, connectivity and conflict resolution among the member states,” said Abdul Kadir Jailani. The world he said was facing a number of challenges and the OIC forum should serve as a forum to discuss and resolve those challenges.
Jailani also commended the Pakistan government’s role in stability of Afghanistan and its contribution towards the war-torn country’s reconstruction and rehabilitation was quite valuable. He welcomed the establishment of the OIC Humanitarian Trust Fund for Afghanistan and hoped the country would come out of the food, health and poverty crisis that is currently risking the lives of its people. He also reiterated his government’s support saying, last year too, the Indonesian government sent two aircrafts of humanitarian goods to Afghanistan. We will continue to assist the country in rehabilitation and reconstruction efforts, he said.
Pakistan and Indonesia he said enjoyed a number of cultural and historical similarities. Both the countries got independence almost in the same years; Indonesia in 1945 and Pakistan in 1947; and both are the world’s top two most populated Muslim countries— Indonesia’s population is around 274 million while Pakistan’s approximately 223 million.
He said there was a need to invest in and exploit the youths’ talent as the youngsters in both the countries constituted major chunk of populations.
On bilateral relations, Abdul Kadir Jailani expressed his government’s desire for further strengthening ties in trade, investment, people-to-people and business-to-business areas. For smooth all-encompassing bilateral relations, he said, economic integration is the fast-track medium. If our economic ties are strong and well in place they will open avenues for social and cultural cooperation and people to people to cooperation. Pakistan and Indonesia’s current trade volume is around US$7 billion and the Deputy Foreign Minister said it needed to be further enhanced.
At this point, Ambassador Adam M Tugio said both the countries were engaged in trade and business cooperation not only at the government to government level but the chambers of commerce and industries of the two countries were also holding dialogues periodically. For enhanced bilateral relations, the two sides were also working on direct flights between Pakistan and Indonesia and for this purpose permits have already been procured and soon you will hear good news, the ambassador said.
