Pakistan and the United Kingdom on Thursday agreed to deepen cooperation in multiple areas, following talks in Islamabad between the two sides.
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar received the visiting UK Minister of State for Security, Dan Jarvis, in Islamabad. The meeting brought together the senior Pakistani minister and the visiting British minister for a discussion of bilateral ties.
Both sides reviewed existing bilateral ties during the meeting. The review covered the state of the relationship as it stands, and it formed the basis for the agreement reached on the way forward.
The two sides agreed to further deepen cooperation in security, law enforcement, migration, trade and investment, according to the Foreign Office. The five areas named in that agreement cover a broad span of the bilateral relationship, from security matters to economic engagement.
Security cooperation was one of the areas in which deeper engagement was agreed. Law enforcement was named alongside it, pointing to practical cooperation between the relevant authorities in the two countries.
Migration was also included among the areas for deeper cooperation. Trade and investment completed the list, showing that the agreement extends beyond security matters into the economic side of the relationship.
The Foreign Office statement on the meeting set out the agreement in those terms. The wording used by the Foreign Office describes the outcome as a decision to deepen cooperation across the five areas, rather than a narrow or single-issue understanding.
The meeting in Islamabad was the latest step in the engagement between Pakistan and the United Kingdom. The visit by the UK Minister of State for Security brought the British minister to the Pakistani capital for direct talks with the Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister.
A day earlier, Pakistan and the UK had expressed concern at terrorism emanating from Afghanistan during their annual bilateral counterterrorism dialogue in Islamabad, the Foreign Office stated. That dialogue, held the day before the meeting between Mr Dar and Mr Jarvis, had already placed terrorism and counterterrorism on the agenda between the two countries.
The concern expressed at that dialogue concerned terrorism emanating from Afghanistan. The two sides raised that concern together, in the course of their annual counterterrorism talks, according to the Foreign Office.
The sequence of the two engagements, the counterterrorism dialogue followed by the meeting on broader cooperation, shows the relationship being pursued on more than one track. The dialogue addressed a specific security concern, while the meeting that followed covered a wider set of areas.
The agreement to deepen cooperation in security and law enforcement follows from that context. The inclusion of migration, trade and investment alongside security suggests that the two sides intend to carry the engagement forward across the relationship as a whole.
For Pakistan, the talks with the visiting British minister provided an opportunity to review ties with the United Kingdom at a senior level. For the United Kingdom, the visit by the Minister of State for Security offered a direct channel to the Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister in Islamabad.
The Foreign Office, in reporting the meeting, named the five areas of cooperation and attributed the agreement to the discussion between the two ministers. The statement is the source for the account of what was agreed.
The annual bilateral counterterrorism dialogue, held a day earlier, had already brought the two sides together in Islamabad. That dialogue is described as an annual event, and it provided the setting for the joint expression of concern about terrorism emanating from Afghanistan.
The two meetings, taken together, show Pakistan and the United Kingdom engaging on security matters in the same week, first through the counterterrorism dialogue and then through the ministerial meeting that broadened the agenda.
The agreement reached on Thursday does not, on the reporting available, set out specific new measures in each of the five areas. What is reported is the agreement itself: to further deepen cooperation in security, law enforcement, migration, trade and investment, as stated by the Foreign Office.
That agreement, reached in Islamabad between Ishaq Dar and Dan Jarvis, is the outcome of the visit, and it frames the next stage of the bilateral relationship between Pakistan and the United Kingdom.
Source: Dawn, Foreign Office
