Islamabad: Under Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi’s FM Connect platform, African envoys to Pakistan were invited to the Foreign Office, to cultivate a greater connect and interaction between the envoys and the Foreign Minister of Pakistan with a specific focus on Economic Diplomacy.

This iteration of FM Connect was held in follow up to the third virtual envoys meeting on economic diplomacy chaired by the Foreign Minister, with a principal focus on Africa, under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs ‘Engage Africa’ policy. Today’s FM Connect is in cognizance of the Foreign Minister’s economic diplomacy agenda and his focus on Pakistan’s shift from Geo-Politics to Geo-Economics.
Envoys from the Federal Republic of Somalia, the Kingdom of Morocco, Mauritius, the Republic of Tunisia, the Republic of South Africa, the State of Libya, the Republic of Sudan, Kenya and the People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria attended FM Connect where Foreign Minister Qureshi reinforced the importance of strong trade ties between Pakistan and Africa and discussed the various ways such ties could be strengthened.

Noting the importance of Africa as the “continent of future”, with 54 countries and a population of 1.3 billion, the Foreign Minister said, Pakistan enjoyed friendly relations and political goodwill in African countries that can be translated into a more robust economic partnership.

Recognizing this, Pakistan had embarked on the ‘Engage Africa’ initiative, aimed at expanding Pakistan’s diplomatic footprint and deepening economic engagement with Africa.

Indeed as part of his initiative on Public Diplomacy, Foreign Minister Qureshi has consistently sought to strengthen Pakistan’s footprint of engagement and inclusion and today’s envoys meeting marks another is a series of regular engagements with key stakeholders. To this end, he first introduced the FM Connect platform in 2019, in line with his commitment to drive the Foreign Office into a modern era of communications, collaboration and innovation, opening the doors to his office to promote the exchange of ideas and discussion across stakeholders from the business community, youth, international press and academia.