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Summary
President Asif Ali Zardari has said that Pakistan looks forward for a comprehensive free trade Agreement with the European Union and a solid, multidimensional and comprehensive partnership with the international community and just not the donor-recipient relationship.He said this during a dinner meeting with the ambassadors of some FoDP countries at Aiwan-e-Sadr on Saturday night. The ambassadors present during the dinner included among others Daniel Jouanneau of France, Ali Saif Sultan Al Awani of UAE, Chihiro Atsumi of Japan, Mustafa Babur Hizlan of Turkey, Adam Thomson of United Kingdom and Choi Choong-Joo of Korea.Ambassador Ms. Robin Raphel, Coordinator for E&D Assistance USA and Engin Soysal, UNSGR were also present. Talking with the Ambassadors, the President said that war against terror on one hand and the recent devastating floods on the other have created a situation that needs to be addressed through a joint effort. We hardly had our economy started showing signs of recovery when it was hit hard by the recent calamity and this was a situation that no country could handle on its own without proactive assistance from the international community, he said. The President said the government is thankful to United Nations and other friends who pleaded their case and invited the attention of the international community towards countless miseries of the people of Pakistan. Discussing the flood situation and rehabilitation and reconstruction efforts, the President said that the government is mobilizing all available domestic resources including imposition of a onetime flood tax on the well to do people in order to generate indigenous resources. Welcoming Summit level dialogues with the European Union, the President said Pakistan desires to have a comprehensive partnership and that the Summit level interaction should be on a regular basis rather than ad-hoc.
