PM To Leave For Spain, Belgium To Attend EU Moot

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani will leave here Tuesday on an official visit to Spain and Belgium to further strengthen Pakistan-EU relations and to seek greater market access for Pakistani products. Gilani during his two-day visit to Spain, which is the current President of the powerful European Union, will discuss with its leaders ways to increase trade and commercial ties.

It will be Prime Minister Gilani's first visit to Spain, where he will apprise its leadership about the challenges the new democratic government was facing and the measures being taken to counter the threats of extremism and terrorism.

Diplomatic relations between the two countries were established in the late 1950s and the two countries have since developed an institutional framework for bilateral collaboration in various areas.

Gilani is likely to have an audience with the King of Spain King Juan Carlos I, besides meeting Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who will also host a working lunch for him.

He will meet with the President of Senate Francisco Javier Rojo Garcia before attending a reception by the Confederation of Employers and Industries of Spain (CEOE).

The prime minister will leave on the second leg of his visit to Belgium, where apart from meeting its leadership, he will? visit the European Parliament, the NATO headquarters and address the North Atlantic Council.

He will represent Pakistan at the second Pak-EU Summit on June 4, that will review progress on various issues identified jointly at the Summit last year, including the dedicated dialogue on trade.

EU Council President Herman van Rompuy and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso would lead the European delegation.

The summit is a follow-up to the first-ever EU-Pakistan Summit, held in Brussels on June 17 last year and was followed by the European Union (EU) foreign ministers' adoption of an action plan for Afghanistan and Pakistan on October 27, 2009.