By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Canada’s top diplomat pledged more than $47 million in new aid to Pakistan on Monday and pressed for expanded trade in agriculture, mining and energy, becoming the first Canadian foreign minister to visit the country in nearly 20 years.
Anita Anand met separately with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar during a one-day visit that produced a signed agricultural trade agreement, new security funding routed through Interpol and the United Nations, and public praise for Pakistan’s role in trying to defuse the latest fighting between the United States and Iran.
“This is the first visit of a Canadian foreign minister to Pakistan in almost 20 years,” Anand said at a joint appearance with Dar. “We have more work to do together to ensure that across sectors … there is a strong bilateral relationship.”
Dar, who greeted Anand at the Foreign Office in the morning and later hosted a banquet lunch in her honor, called for the two countries to meet more often. “We need to meet more frequently in our capitals,” he told reporters. “We have the possibility and the capability of raising our bilateral relations, in terms of trade, defence and investment; there is a huge scope.”
AID PACKAGE, WITH AN EYE ON THE REGION
Anand announced $2.2 million for three new security initiatives in Pakistan, funded through Interpol and the United Nations and aimed at border management, counterterrorism, financial crime and training for law enforcement officers. She paired that with $45 million for three development initiatives intended to help Pakistani communities adapt to climate change, expand access to education for girls, and recover from repeated flooding in recent years.
Pakistan has mediated between the United States and Iran since fighting between the two broke out in February, hosting the first round of talks in April and helping broker an interim agreement in June known as the Islamabad MoU before hostilities resumed this month. Anand’s comments came the same day the United States announced a new round of strikes inside Iran, and Iran claimed to have struck American assets in Syria and Jordan.
“I’d like to acknowledge Pakistan’s efforts in supporting dialogue aimed at achieving a sustainable and peaceful resolution to the regional tensions in the Middle East, including involving Iran,” Anand said. “Canada remains concerned by the escalation of tensions across the Middle East and Gulf region.”
TRADE TALK, FROM CANOLA TO COPPER
Anand called Pakistan an important partner in Canada’s push to diversify its trading relationships, pointing to agriculture, mining, energy, and the auto and auto-parts industry as sectors for growth in her meetings with both Sharif and Dar. She also raised a proposed Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement, telling officials it would give Canadian investors more confidence to put money into Pakistan.
Dar said Pakistan welcomed Canadian investment across education, energy, mining and critical minerals, agricultural infrastructure and information technology, and that the two sides had discussed ways to deepen business-to-business ties. He said Pakistan’s newly established National Agri-Trade and Food Safety Authority, created last year to modernize the country’s agricultural trade infrastructure, would begin exploring technical cooperation with its Canadian counterpart, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
Sharif witnessed the signing of a protocol governing the import of genetically modified canola from Canada into Pakistan, intended for food, feed and processing, after his meeting with Anand. Dar and Anand signed on behalf of their respective governments. Pakistani officials called it a reflection of the two countries’ commitment to strengthening agricultural trade.
Bilateral merchandise trade between the two countries topped $1.2 billion last year, spanning agri-food, manufacturing and consumer goods. Canadian mining giant Barrick Gold is also developing the Reko Diq gold-copper project in partnership with Pakistan’s federal and provincial governments — the largest foreign investment project in the country’s history.
KASHMIR AND THE INDUS WATERS TREATY
Dar raised Pakistan’s dispute with India over Jammu and Kashmir, calling it one of the world’s most enduring unresolved international disputes and noting it has sat on the United Nations Security Council’s agenda since 1948. He said India had escalated an already volatile situation by suspending the Indus Waters Treaty in April 2025, and appealed to Canada and other allies to press India to restore it.
“We seek the support of our friendly countries, including Canada, towards India’s immediate restoration of the IWT, ending the weaponisation of water and upholding international law and treaty obligations as per international law and practices,” Dar said.
Dar said he and Anand also discussed the situation in Afghanistan and broader counterterrorism cooperation, part of talks that Pakistani officials said covered the “entire spectrum” of the bilateral relationship.
DIASPORA AS DIPLOMATIC LINK
Officials from both governments pointed repeatedly to the roughly 300,000 Pakistani nationals living in Canada as a connective thread between the two countries, one that has persisted through the recent lull in diplomatic visits.
Anand also met separately with Pakistan’s interior minister, Mohsin Naqvi, where the two discussed cooperation on illegal immigration, human trafficking and cybercrime, along with potential training exchanges for law enforcement. Officials said the two sides agreed to sign a memorandum of understanding on the cooperation soon.
Delegation-level talks later in the day produced an agreement to hold annual reviews of the countries’ progress on trade and security goals. Officials on both sides described the visit as the start of a renewed, more frequent cadence of engagement after a stretch of nearly 20 years without a Canadian foreign minister setting foot in the country.
Copyright © 2021 Independent Pakistan | All rights reserved
