Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi held a telephone conversation with Australian counterpart Marise Payne over Covid-19 Pandemic, as both nations are struggling to contain the spread of virus. Australia is grappling the Pandemic with 6183 confirmed cases across the country till Friday afternoon and 53 deaths. Pakistan is suffered with 65 deaths so far.
Foreign Minister Qureshi expressed his deep condolences over loss of precious lives and appreciated the efforts undertaken by the Australian government for dealing with the outbreak and mitigating its economic impact”, said a statement issued by the Pakistan’s Foreign Office late on Thursday.
Recalling Australia’s valuable support during 2010 floods and 2005 earthquake, Foreign Minister Qureshi expressed the hope that Pakistani Diaspora in Australia, particularly the students, will be looked after.
He also briefed the Australian Foreign Minister on the measures being taken by Pakistan to contain the pathogen.
Underscoring the importance of collaborative endeavours to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic, the two Foreign Ministers agreed to stay engaged.
Pakistani Foreign Minister highlighted Prime Minister Imran Khan’s call for debt relief and restructuring for developing countries to enable them to free up resources to combat the disease, save precious lives, and shore up economies.
He also highlighted concerns relating to on-going restrictions in Indian Occupied Jammu & Kashmir (IOJ&K), now entering ninth month, which were hampering dissemination of information, and preventing unfettered supply of medicines and other essentials needed to combat the disease. He also called for release of all IOJ&K political prisoners arbitrarily incarcerated by India.
Mr Qureshi further drew attention to India’s opportunistic attempts to change IOJ&K’s demographic structure in contravention of UN Security Council Resolutions, and international law, including the 4th Geneva Convention.
