President Dr Arif Alvi on Tuesday called for the need to further cement bilateral ties between Pakistan and Maldives in all fields of mutual interest, especially in the education, health and tourism sectors.

The president, talking to Pakistan’s High Commissioner-designate to the Maldives, Vice Admiral (r) Muhammad Fayyaz Gilani here, advised the envoy-designate to especially focus on establishing strategic ties with the Maldives in sectors such as trade, business and investment and people-to-people contacts.

He also called for bilateral cooperation in health, education, human resource development as well as in the fields of defence, climate change and tourism. 

The president highlighted the potential of cooperation in the tourism industry between the two countries as the Maldives was a world-class tourism destination and Pakistan could benefit from its expertise. 

He said that Pakistan could offer the distance learning and hybrid learning as well as the education expertise of Allama Iqbal Open University and the Virtual University of Pakistan for imparting competitive and high-quality education in various educational disciplines to the Maldivian students. 

President Alvi expressed his satisfaction over the existing cordial relations and hoped that the newly appointed envoy would effectively utilize all available diplomatic mechanisms, including the Bilateral Political Consultations (BPC), Joint Economic Commission, and Joint Business Councils, to increase bilateral engagements as well as cooperation within the framework of SARRC, OIC, UN and Commonwealth. 

The president also asked the envoy to convey his greetings and best wishes to the President of Maldives, Ibrahim Mohamed Solih.