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Pakistan's Premier Multilingual News Agency

Pakistan’s Maritime Affairs Minister meets Dutch Ambassador

Islamabad, 2 August 2022 (GNP): Wouter Plomp, Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to Pakistan, called on the Minister for Maritime Affairs, Syed Faisal Ali Subzwari. During the meeting, the officials discussed matters of mutual interest.

The Maritime Minister highlighted the great potential for the Netherlands in Pakistan’s maritime sector. He also briefed the Ambassador on the performance of Karachi’s ports and the immense opportunities in the country’s fishing sector.

In addition, Ambassador Plomp also expressed his desire to secure investment opportunities in the Gwadar Port. Both the Minister and the Federal Secretary recognized and guaranteed the Ambassador’s efforts in this regard.

Furthermore, the Ambassador expressed his appreciation for the recent soft launch of the PIMEC project. The Federal Minister discussed the idea of PIMEC, saying that “MoMA is the patron while Pakistan Navy is the executor of the idea & it’ll open great opportunity for the Dutch investors & exhibitors as well.”

Pakistan-Netherlands Relations

Pakistan and Netherlands have a long history of diplomatic relations and cooperative relations. The two countries established relations soon after Pakistan’s independence from the British empire.

The Dutch embassy in Pakistan was established in 1995. The Netherlands currently maintains two consulates in Karachi and Lahore and an embassy in Islamabad.

Contact between the peoples of the two nations goes further back to the era of exploration and colonization when the Dutch East India Company started operations in the Indian Ocean and the Indian subcontinent.

From the 1960s onward, Pakistan received Development Cooperation funding from the Netherlands, especially in the areas of water management, environment, education, and governance. The Dutch government made the decision to emphasize and improve trade relations in 2011.

Relations in trade, education, culture, development assistance, and people-to-people ties are strong. Pakistan is the Netherlands’ 13th-largest trading partner globally and its sixth-largest non-European economic partner. To encourage trade between the two nations, Pakistan and the Netherlands signed a bilateral double taxation agreement in 1982.

Thousands of Pakistanis live, study, and work in the Netherlands as part of the national diaspora.

Furthermore, the two countries also cooperate under Pakistan-European Union cooperation mechanisms, as the Netherlands is an active member of the EU.

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