ISLAMABAD: Pakistani and Austrian foreign ministers said on Thursday they were seeing their bilateral ties entering a new chapter with a deeper and stronger profitable relationship.
Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, while speaking at a media conference after a meeting with his Austrian counterpart Alexander Schallenberg, said “ We ’ve charted a way forward in our bilateral relations.”
Mr Schallenberg said his visit would mark the “ morning of a new period in relations between the two countries not only politically but also economically”.
The Austrian foreign minister’s four- day visit to Pakistan, along with a group of 20 businessmen, has been dominated by profitable docket, though he also had important geopolitical conversations with both Mr Qureshi and Prime Minister Imran Khan, especially on the situation in Afghanistan and Ukraine.
FM Qureshi said that openings for trade and investment were linked in their meeting.
Mr Schallenberg expressed interest of his country’s investors in hydrogen power, tourism, structure, and green technology sectors, noting that “ Austrian companies are world leaders” in these areas.
He said that Austria, in view of the evolving geo-political situation because of the war in Ukraine, was looking for “ new openings” and “ new requests”.
The Austrian foreign minister was bothered that the world would be “ more combative” after the Ukraine war and advised that no one would be spared of its consequences.
“ I believe that no country can be indifferent to that,” he said in a reference to Pakistan’s neutral position on the conflict.
It’s important to understand that “ this wasn’t a European war. This isn’t in far a European war. Do n’t get this wrong. This is commodity which will concern you also,” he claimed.
European countries, including Austria, have been uneasy with Pakistan’s neutral station. Islamabad has been putting emphasis on resolving the disagreement through tactfulness and hoping for the success of ongoing Russia-Ukraine addresses.
The Europeans, still, are unhappy that Pakistan avoided a clear condemnation of the Russian “ aggression” against Ukraine and abstained from advancing on the UN resolution calling for an end to the war.
Mr Qureshi said that Pakistan wasn’t asleep to the transnational opinion.
He reminded that Pakistan suffered from the consequences of the Afghan war and said that it had seen “ how people look the other way”. Complaining about the West abandoning Pakistan, he said Islamabad had now chosen to “ traipse precisely”.
The two sides also bandied Afghanistan.
Mr Schallenberg, in a reference to Afghanistan, said it was important to make “ sure that we do n’t lose sight of other heads”.
He said a exile extremity was developing in Europe where 10 million people were likely to leave Ukraine.
“ We do n’t want other migration flows to add to this,” he said, suggesting that Europe would not like to see a situation wherein Afghan deportees also start heading towards it.
Mr Qureshi, according to a separate media statement issued by FO on the meeting between the two leaders, again called on the transnational community to constructively engage Taliban for a peaceful, stable and prosperous Afghanistan.
