Zardari assured of help for flood victims

By Munir Hussain

SOCHI (RUSSIA), Aug 18 (APP): Assuring Pakistan of their help in mitigating the sufferings of its flood victims, the Presidents of Russia, Tajikistan and Afghanistan along with President Asif Ali Zardari here on Wednesday called for collective action to lead their nations to a prosperous future by carrying out joint mega projects in critical areas of energy and transportation.This was the second meeting of the quartet which met last time in Tajik capital Dushanbe in July 2009, where it reached decisions of far reaching consequence for the security and development of the region and the world.This was a follow-up meeting hosted by the Russian President, who like in the past, underlined the need for exploiting the potential that existed in sectors of energy, transport, trade and communication.

At the opening of the quadrilateral summit, President Asif Ali Zardari, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon and Afghan President Hamid Karzai made statements highlighting the objectives behind the summit and the goals they wanted to achieve by coming together.

The main theme that ran through the remarks of the four leaders was to stay united against the menace of terrorism and strengthen multilateral forums to snuff life out of terrorist networks, which are relying on narco trade and illegal weapons to keep threatening the governments and civil orders to impose their narrow agendas.

The leaders had a frank discussion on various issues of mutual, regional and international importance with commonality of views on a range of issues.

The leaders recognized that they needed to enhance regional cooperation to face difficult challenges such as the natural disasters like floods in Pakistan and huge fires in Russia.

The leaders pledged to follow a shared vision and joint destiny and stay firm to root out terrorism and dampen the effects of extremism.

In his statement, President Asif Ali Zardari called upon the international community and the regional partners to help Pakistan out of a difficult situation caused by floods.

He said his nation would show its determined character and would emerge strongly out of the natural disaster.

He said improving regional cooperation was the way forward and the world was waiting for countries of this region to make joint progress in economic sphere and play important role in handling difficult challenges at international level.

The Russian President said his country would want to assist Pakistan in the construction of houses and rehabilitation of livelihoods.

The leaders discussed the internal situation in Afghanistan with the bottom line that long term peace and security will remain a distant dream without normalizing the situation in that country.

They said terrorism should be taken as a common problem and the partners should have collective strategies to answer the threats posed by terrorist networks.

The next important component of the parleys was economic cooperation and potential of launching mega cross country projects.

Pakistan and Tajikistan are already working on two important projects. One is the supply of 1000 megawatts of electricity to Pakistan from Tajikistan through a 700 km transmission line.

The second project is a road for which the Presidents of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Tajikistan signed a joint declaration at the last summit agreeing to practically implement the construction of rail, roads and highways on the Panji Poyon-Sherkhon route and Bandar-Kabul-Peshawar giving access to Tajikistan through Pakistan seaports.

The leaders offered their sympathies for the losses in lives and material suffered by Pakistan and said they are with Pakistan in its hour of need.