Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan cemented a new 50 USD million defence credit line facility to Sri Lanka, during his maiden visit here since taking office.
A joint press statement by the Public Diplomacy Division of the Foreign Ministry said both nations “stressed the need for stronger partnership for supporting and coordinating with each other in dealing with matters related to security, terrorism, organised crime and drug and narcotic trafficking as well as intelligence-sharing”.
Accepting an invitation by Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, Khan arrived in the island on Tuesday (23) on a two-day official visit where he held crucial bilateral discussions with President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa.
The press statement said the visit afforded a timely opportunity to both sides to further build upon their close and regular consultations, particularly in the areas identified during the Foreign Secretary-level Bilateral Political Consultations, Joint Economic Commission session recently and the commerce Secretaries-level Talks.
At the Pakistan-Sri Lanka Trade and Investment Conference held on Wednesday (24) Khan extended an invitation to local businessmen and investors to be a part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a flagship project of BRI, for regional economic growth and prosperity.
“It opens the opportunity for Sri Lankan businesses right up to Central Asia. It gives you an opportunity of connecting from Gwadar, which is the port, right up to Uzbekistan and Central Asian states. And this is the connectivity which Pakistan offers along with, in CPEC we have these special economic zones which gives incentives to businesses to set up industries there,” he said.
Several Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs) were also signed between the two nations including cooperation in Tourism, MoU between the University of Colombo, and Lahore School of Economics, Pakistan an MoU between Industrial Technology Institute (ITI), and International Centre for Chemical and Biological Sciences, University of Karachi.