Korea admires Pakistan’s role for global peace
Pakistan to hit back aggression in same coin: PM

SEOUL—Korean President Roh Moo-hyun in a meeting with Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz here Friday appreciated Pakistan’s role in promoting world peace and welcomed its ongoing dialogue with India to resolve disputes for durable peace in South Asia.
In a meeting held at the Blue House (President House) that lasted for about 50 minutes, the two leaders held wide-ranging talks on bilateral ties and regional and international issues including Iran, North Korea, Afghanistan, Iraq and UN reforms.
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, while talking to reporters, described his meeting with the President as constructive that also reviewed the entire gamut of economic and trade ties between their countries.
The Prime Minister said he updated the Korean President on the composite dialogue process with India to resolve all issues including the decades-old Kashmir dispute. The Korean President welcomed the dialogue process and said he would encourage both sides to resolve their disputes through peaceful negotiation. He said Pakistan was making a “material difference” in efforts for peace with its stabilizing influence in the region.
Prime Minister Aziz told the Korean President that Pakistan’s engagement with India emanates from its desire to have good relations with all its neighbors and ensure durable peace in the region. He, however, emphasized that for lasting peace, the Kashmir dispute had to be resolved in a manner that is acceptable to all the parties—Pakistan, India and the Kashmiri people.
The Korean President was pleased to note Pakistan’s progress in the economic field and said he was very impressed by the 8.4 growth the country achieved during its last fiscal year. He said South Korea was now looking at Pakistan more seriously and assured his country’s full support in efforts to develop infrastructure and further boost the economy.
Prime Minister Aziz sought South Korea’s technical assistance in various areas and said Pakistan was more keen in having “knowledge linkages” to benefit from Korea’s technological advancement.
On Thursday, the Korean Prime Minister had offered to train government employees and share their expertise in the Information technology in the fields of software and hardware. President Roh Moo-hyun noted Prime Minister Aziz’s hectic engagements with the Korean companies and said his government would encourage the private sector to do business in Pakistan. Prime Minister Aziz told the Korean President that he specially brought with him a group of Pakistani businessmen to provide them with an opportunity to have more interaction with their Korean counterparts.
While exchanging views on international issues, Prime Minister Aziz welcomed the Six-Party talks on North Korea’s nuclear programme and hoped it would help achieve the objective of peace in the Korean Peninsula. On Iran’s nuclear programme, the Prime Minister explained Pakistan’s position for a peaceful settlement of the issue through negotiations. He told the President that Pakistan was not in favour of referring Iran’s case to the UN Security Council and desired the matter to be resolved within the framework of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Pakistan, he added, was also against the use of force to settle the row over Tehran’s nuclear programme as the world was already plagued by various tensions. Pakistan would do whatever it could to have peace in that region, he added. The Prime Minister said Pakistan was also against nuclear proliferation but added that every country has a right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy under the IAEA guidelines and supervision. Referring to Pakistan-India dialogue, Prime Minister Aziz said being a peace-loving country, Pakistan was not in any arms race in the region but made it clear that it would continue to maintain minimum credible deterrence both in conventional and non-conventional field to ensure its peace and security.
Prime Minister Aziz also informed the Korean leader that Pakistan has deployed over 80,000 troops on its border with Afghanistan to prevent any illegal crossings of undesirable elements. He said the recent elections in Afghanistan were largely held peacefully and Pakistan as a responsible state did whatever it could to help that country in this regard.
Pakistan fully supports the government of President Hamid Karzai and wants to see a stable and peaceful Afghanistan as it was in the interest of that county, its people and also for the entire region, he added. The Korean President appreciated Pakistan’s role in the fight against terrorism. However, Prime Minister Aziz stressed on the need to address the root causes that spawned extreme behaviour.
The two sides also discussed the UN reforms and expressed satisfaction over the efforts by the member countries of the Unity for Consensus (UFC) group aimed at making the world body more democratic and representative. Prime Minister Aziz said Pakistan’s stand on the expansion of the UN Security Council was based on principle as it was against the creation of more centers of privileges.
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has said that Pakistan is a peaceful country, however it will pay back in the same coin in case of any aggression. “ We neither want tension nor war with any country. However, we will safeguard our honour, and dignity at any cost”, Aziz said while addressing the members of Pakistani community in South Korea here on Friday. PML(Q) President Chaudhry Shujjat Hussein and State Minister for Labour and Overseas Pakistan, Senator Tariq Azim were also present. The prime minister said his government would exploit every possible resource to further strengthen the capabilities of Pakistan army. He said the recently held local bodies polls were free, fair and transparent. However, he admitted, that there was a “little” criticism in Common Wealth’s report on the polls, “ from which we would learn something”.
He said the country’s economy had been put on the right track by the incumbent government as it had said “good bye” to the IMF. “Now, our focus is on education, infrastructure, law and order and technical education”, he added. He said the Korean companies and investors had shown great interest in investing in various mega projects in Pakistan.
He lauded the services of overseas Pakistanis, especially working in Korea terming them true representatives of Pakistan. He informed the community that the two countries were planning to establish air links, and a Civil Aviation Authority team would be coming to South Korea in December 2005 in this connection. He said that some 7 million overseas Pakistanis remitted a sum of over 4 billion dolars annually to the country, which was playing an important role in underpinning the economy.—APP