ISLAMABAD: The 4th round of Pakistan-Italy Annual Bilateral Political Consultations was held here Thursday wherein the latter agreed on the importance of strengthening cooperation in trade and investment including through private sector joint ventures.
Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua led the Pakistan delegation, while the Italian side was headed by Secretary General of Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Elisabetta Balloni, Foreign Affairs Ministry said in a statement. 
The two sides discussed the entire range of bilateral relations, including regional and global issues of mutual interest.
They expressed satisfaction at the current state of relations and agreed to enhance bilateral cooperation in all spheres, including political, trade and investment, defense, education, archaeology, tourism, culture, and people-to-people contacts.
The two sides welcomed the signing of the Inter-governmental Agreement on Cooperation in the field of LNG and a MoU on cooperation between trade development authorities of the two countries in the field of marble mining, leather, and denim clothing. 
  The Italian delegation was briefed about the government’s priorities and people-centric reform agenda, which focuses on strengthening of democratic norms, good governance, justice and accountability and improving health, education and environmental sectors.
The Italian side was also briefed on the situation of peace and security in the region, including Pakistan-India relations and continuing grave violation of human rights in Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir.  
The two sides also agreed to further build on the already existing strong cooperation at the multilateral fora, in particular at the United Nations. They also decided to work on a comprehensive roadmap for future cooperation.
The role of the strong Pakistani community was appreciated and the issues related to illegal migrants and developing frameworks of legal migration were discussed.
Pakistan and Italy have the institutional mechanism of annual Bilateral Political Consultations under the framework of Pakistan-Italy Strategic Engagement Plan of 2013.
The mechanism of regular bilateral political consultations provides an opportunity to review the entire spectrum of bilateral ties and exchange views on regional and global issues of mutual interest.