Meeting in Islamabad on Friday
Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi and British Minister of State for Security Dan Jarvis met in Islamabad on Friday. The meeting took place in the capital, and it brought together the interior minister of Pakistan and the British minister of state for security. The two ministers discussed cooperation between their two countries, and they reached agreement on expanding that cooperation.
The meeting is a distinct new meeting, and it should not be confused with the broader Pakistan-Britain cooperation reported yesterday. Yesterday’s article concerned a broader cooperation discussion, while this meeting is a separate meeting on Friday between Minister Naqvi and Minister Jarvis, with its own agreed outcomes. The distinction is important, because the two meetings are different events, even though both concern Pakistan-Britain cooperation.
The Friday meeting was held in Islamabad, and the two participants are named in the reports. Minister Naqvi is Pakistan’s interior minister, and Minister Jarvis is the British minister of state for security. The meeting was between those two ministers, and the agreement reached in it is set out in the sections that follow.
Agreement on Seven Areas of Cooperation
The two sides agreed to expand cooperation in seven areas: counterterrorism, anti-narcotics, NADRA, cybercrime, immigration, coast guards and training programmes. Those seven areas are listed together in the reports, and they cover a wide range of subjects that fall within the responsibilities of the two interior ministries.
Counterterrorism and anti-narcotics are the first two areas named. NADRA is the third, followed by cybercrime and immigration. Coast guards and training programmes complete the list. Together, the seven areas show the breadth of the cooperation that the two sides agreed to expand. They include security subjects, such as counterterrorism and anti-narcotics, administrative subjects, such as NADRA and immigration, and operational subjects, such as coast guards and cybercrime, alongside training programmes.
The agreement is to expand cooperation, which means to increase or broaden the cooperation that already exists in those areas. The list of seven areas is therefore the scope of the expansion: it is in those seven fields that the two sides have agreed to work more closely together. The reports do not set out the specific steps that will be taken in each area, and this article does not add any.
Anti-Narcotics Memorandum to Be Finalised
Both sides agreed to finalise a Memorandum of Understanding on anti-narcotics cooperation at the earliest. That agreement concerns a specific document: a Memorandum of Understanding, or MoU, on anti-narcotics cooperation. The two sides have agreed that the MoU should be finalised at the earliest, which means as soon as possible, rather than at a later date.
The MoU is on anti-narcotics cooperation, which is one of the seven areas listed above. The decision to finalise it at the earliest gives that area a particular priority within the wider agreement. It is a concrete next step that follows from the meeting, and it is distinct from the general agreement to expand cooperation in the seven areas. The general agreement sets the scope, and the MoU is a specific document that the two sides have agreed to complete.
Working Group Meeting to Be Convened Soon
Both sides also agreed to convene a meeting of the working group between the two interior ministries soon. The working group is a group drawn from the two interior ministries, and the meeting to be convened is a meeting of that group. The agreement is that the meeting should be held soon, which indicates it is a near-term step following the ministers’ meeting.
Taken together, the meeting produced three outcomes: agreement to expand cooperation in seven areas, agreement to finalise the anti-narcotics MoU at the earliest, and agreement to convene a meeting of the working group between the two interior ministries soon.
Source: The Express Tribune
