Pakistan urges Egypt to help end ‘bloodshed’ in Syria

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari on Monday urged his Egyptian counterpart Mohammed Mursi to help efforts to end the “bloodshed” in Syria and find a solution to the crisis.

Zardari made the remarks during talks with Mursi who arrived in Pakistan as part of a South Asian tour that will also take him to India as he works to promote trade and investment in Egypt’s troubled economy.

Mursi’s one-day trip to Pakistan is the first bilateral visit by an Egyptian leader since Gamal Abdel Nasser in the 1960s, Pakistan’s foreign ministry said.

Zardari “urged for working together to end the bloodshed in Syria and to find a peaceful solution to the crisis,” presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar said in a statement after the talks.

Zardari also stressed that “the drive for peace in Syria must be led and owned by the Syrian people and offered Pakistan’s readiness to play its role,” Babar said.
Officials from the two countries signed agreements to promote cooperation in shipping, investment, information technology and science and technology.

Pakistani state television showed live footage of the ceremony at the presidential palace where Mursi was greeted and presented with a military honor guard.

Late Monday he is due to travel to India, where he will meet with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and business groups to bolster a blossoming trade relationship worth $4.5 billion in 2012/11 compared to $3.2 billion the previous financial year.

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari on Monday urged his Egyptian counterpart Mohammed Mursi to help efforts to end the “bloodshed” in Syria and find a solution to the crisis.

Zardari made the remarks during talks with Mursi who arrived in Pakistan as part of a South Asian tour that will also take him to India as he works to promote trade and investment in Egypt’s troubled economy.

Mursi’s one-day trip to Pakistan is the first bilateral visit by an Egyptian leader since Gamal Abdel Nasser in the 1960s, Pakistan’s foreign ministry said.

Zardari “urged for working together to end the bloodshed in Syria and to find a peaceful solution to the crisis,” presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar said in a statement after the talks.

Zardari also stressed that “the drive for peace in Syria must be led and owned by the Syrian people and offered Pakistan’s readiness to play its role,” Babar said.
Officials from the two countries signed agreements to promote cooperation in shipping, investment, information technology and science and technology.

Pakistani state television showed live footage of the ceremony at the presidential palace where Mursi was greeted and presented with a military honor guard.

Late Monday he is due to travel to India, where he will meet with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and business groups to bolster a blossoming trade relationship worth $4.5 billion in 2012/11 compared to $3.2 billion the previous financial year.

‘Our trade with Egypt has increased so rapidly in the last three years that India is now Egypt’s seventh-largest trading partner,’ India’s ambassador to Egypt Navdeep Suri told reporters ahead of the visit.

‘We talk often in general terms about space, technology and cooperation but during this visit we are talking in specific terms about launching an Egyptian satellite,’ he added.

Egypt is struggling to restore investor and foreign lenders’ confidence in the nation, which has suffered a sharp economic decline since the uprising that overthrew President Hosni Mubarak in February 2011.

Mursi’s administration has been plagued by unrest and deadly clashes between protesters and police, blocking efforts to build broad-based support for a needed program of economic reform.

Source: Alarabiya