Senior diplomats from 16 nations and multilateral agencies attended the day-long presentations. Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Pakistan ambassador Aizaz Ahmed said that the meeting was essentially organisational in nature. According to him, the participants are trying to put together a frame work for co-operation and have identified four key areas of co-operation which include economic development, energy, security and institution building.
Sources said detailed presentations were made on the health of the country's economy, resource gaps, areas of potential investment, and the recent letter of intent issued to IMF for a $7.6 billion assistance. "This is the road-map we have prepared today for the experts' meeting in Islamabad in the third week of January next year. There was unanimous agreement on the road-map, which will be discussed in detail and in the experts' meeting, which will conclude a set of recommendations that will be sent to the Friends of Pakistan group ministers' meeting to be held in Islamabad in February," sources quoted him as saying.
He termed the meeting as a road-map of need assessments, where areas were identified for what he called "Partnership", according to sources. The meeting, Chaudhary said was successful as there was a unanimous support expressed by senior diplomats of all friends of Pakistan, in fighting its economic problems and rebuilding the nation's economy besides supporting economic development projects.
Apart from economic issues a presentation was made on internal security also, where capacity of law enforcement agencies in fighting the war on terrorism was spotlighted, as Pakistan wants to re-build its internal security forces on modern lines, in order to tackle the security challenges it faces. Asked what are Pakistan's expectations from the Group, Chaudhary said since it was an initial meeting so there was no request discussed.
In the course of next two months, meetings would be held at experts level, where the areas of co-operation identified, would be further fine tuned in order to prepare concrete proposals for investment projects. In the next meeting experts will present their reports showing their interest in specific areas and present it at the foreign ministers meeting to be held in Islamabad, in the third week of February.
To a question about Pakistan seeking oil supplies on deferred payment, he said it was not the platform to make such requests." It can only be discussed at the next meeting, where request for help in specific areas could be made", said Chaudhary. Delegates from Australia, Canada, Britain, US, China, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, European Union, European Commission, UN, Japan, Germany attended the meeting.