DOCUMENT No. 4 

Opening Statement by the President of Pakistan at His Breakfast Meeting With the Journalists at Dhaka, Bangladesh July 31, 2002

It is a pleasure to meet all of you. Our meeting fortuitously takes place towards the end of my most fruitful, though brief, visit to your beautiful country.

Let me begin by expressing my appreciation and gratitude for the invitation extended to me by your Prime Minister to visit Bangladesh, the warm welcome accorded to me and the members of my entourage as well as the excellent arrangements made for our comfortable stay.

My talks with the Acting President as well as with Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia were held in an atmosphere of cordiality, empathy and complete understanding. We reviewed bilateral relations between our two fraternal countries, discussed ways and means to strengthen them further and also views on the regional situation, as well as on important international developments and issues.

We agreed that the content of our relations, particularly economic and cultural, should correspond to the immense goodwill existing between our two countries. We have, to that end, signed a Protocol on bilateral consultations at the Foreign Secretaries' level, a Cultural Exchange Programme, and an MoU to form a Pakistan-Bangladesh Joint Business Council.

The Foreign Secretary level talks would be held every year alternately at Islamabad and Dhaka. The Cultural Exchange Programme, signed under the Cultural Agreement of 1979, covers co-operation for the years 2003-2007. The main areas of co-operation are education, science and technology, culture and information. We have more than doubled the number of scholarships for Bangladeshi students and added Information Technology and MBA to the fields of study offered by Pakistan. In addition, we have offered new training facilities for Bangladeshi officials in Museography and Museology; and restoration of antiquities and works of art. 

The Joint Business Council will work to bring the business communities of the two countries closer together in order to promote bilateral trade and economic co-operation. We have agreed to allow Bangladeshi jute and tea added access to Pakistani market on a unilateral basis. We have also written off Rs. 84 million due on account of supply of defence equipment to Bangladesh.

Pakistan and Bangladesh agreed that peace and stability are essential preconditions to usher an era of sustained economic development and increasing prosperity in South Asia. Peace must be safeguarded and, to that end, all outstanding inter-state issues in South Asia resolved through peaceful means.

SAARC has an important role to promote regional co-operation and must be allowed to play its rightful part. It must be fully revived and reactivated. We wish to move hand-in-hand with fellow member states to build peace and stability in South Asia.

While briefing the Bangladeshi leadership on the current tension brought about by India’s deployment of its forces at our borders, I highlighted that Pakistan does not want a war .We also do not want the tension to perpetuate. Therefore, we have all along responded to various escalatory steps with restraint. We want to live in peace and with honour. While we will never initiate a war, if one is imposed on us, we will not flinch. The current tension must be defused by withdrawal of troops to peacetime locations and the commencement of a result oriented dialogue between Pakistan and India.

I remain committed to resolving all problems, including the Jammu and Kashmir dispute, through peaceful means, preferably through dialogue.

However, in order to be durable, solutions have to be based on justice and legality. They cannot be imposed. We will persist in our efforts to engage our neighbour in constructive and purposeful talks.

Pakistan and Bangladesh are one in condemning terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. We are with the international community in its war on terrorism. We were among the first to extend all possible help for that purpose. Pakistan and Bangladesh make a clear distinction between terrorism and the legitimate struggle of a people for self-determination. The sacrifices made in fighting illegal occupation and repression cannot be branded as terrorism.

The basic objective of my visit to Bangladesh is to promote Pakistan-Bangladesh relations. I undertook the visit with the full realization that there are many in Bangladesh who continue to hark back to the tragic events of 1971 in order to thwart or retard the growth of friendship and co-operation between our two countries. This serves the interest of neither your country nor mine. Therefore, I came to Bangladesh also to make a sincere and genuine appeal that we should put the past behind us and look to the future.  Rancour and recrimination between us only promote the agenda of our enemies.

I have renewed my earlier invitation to Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia to visit Pakistan. The Prime Minister has very kindly accepted the invitation. The people of Pakistan are keen to welcome her. I am sure that her visit would provide an excellent opportunity to build further on the progress we have made during our talks in Dhaka.

Before concluding, I would like to reiterate my thanks to the Government and the people of Bangladesh for the very warm welcome and the gracious hospitality extended to me, my wife and the members of my delegation. We will carry home very fond memories of our stay in Sonar Bangla.

http://www.pak.gov.pk/public/visits/statement_on_dhaka.htm