MADRID: Minister for Foreign Affairs Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Wednesday left here for Islamabad after completion of his two-day visit to Spain.

Ambassador of Pakistan in Spain, Shujaat Rathor, and Spanish envoy in Islamabad Manuel Durn Gimnez-Rico and senior officers of the foreign ministry saw off the foreign minister at Adolfo Surez Madrid-Barajas Airport.

The foreign minister visited Spain on the invitation of his Spanish counterpart Jose Manuel Albares.

During his stay, Mr Qur­e­shi met his counterpart, pre­sidents of Spain’s Congress of Deputies and Foreign Rel­ations Committee, Spanish trade minister and members of the Spanish parliament.

During his meeting with his Spanish counterpart on Tuesday, Mr Qureshi urged the Spanish government to review the Pakistan travel advisory following remarkable improvement in the law and order situation.

He discussed bilateral ties, multifaceted cooperation in trade, investment and tourism besides the regional and global matters.

Besides addressing a joint press conference along with his counterpart, the foreign minister interacted with think tanks, journalists and apprised them of the objectives of this visit, improving bilateral relations and regional situation. The foreign minister told his counterpart that over 125,000 Pakistani expatriates in Spain contributed to strengthening of bilateral relations.

He said that owing to non-existence of dual citizenship agreement between Pakistan and Spain, the Pakistani citizens residing in Spain had to revoke their Pakistani citizenship, according to local laws.

He expressed the hope that the Spanish government would seriously consider the resolution of this issue confronting the Pakistani citizens. The foreign minister said that being a market of 200 million people, Pakistan was an attractive market for foreign investment in textile, housing, construction, pharmaceutical, renewable energy, agriculture and sports industries.

He said that with a trade volume of $1.3 billion, Spain was among the biggest trade partners of Pakistan. Discussing the Afghanistan situation, the foreign minister asked the EU to play an effective role to avert a humanitarian crisis in the war-torn country.

Regarding the situation in India-occupied Kashmir, the foreign minister apprised his counterpart of threats posed by Indian policies to the regional peace.

Published in Dawn, January 13th, 2022