TEHRAN/ISLAMABAD - Pakistan and Iran on Monday said they respected each other's sovereignty and territorial integrity and would expand security cooperation, bidding to mend ties after tit-for-tat missile strikes at what they said were militant targets.
Foreign ministers of the two countries held talks in the Pakistani capital days after their military moves earlier in January raised concerns about wider instability in the region since the beginning of Israel's war on Gaza.
Pakistan's caretaker Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas Jilani, speaking at a joint press conference with his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir Abdollahian, said the neighbours had several strong channels of communication with each other.
"All these channels were operational and we were able to bring whatever issue or misunderstanding that had been created between our two countries, we were able to resolve it fairly quickly," he said.
The two countries agreed to fight terrorism in their respective areas and establish a system of consultations at the level of the foreign ministers to oversee progress across sectors, Jilani said.
Abdollahian said the two countries had a good understanding, and that there have never been territorial differences or wars between Iran and Pakistan.
"We consider Pakistan's security, a brotherly, friendly and neighbourly country of Iran, as the security of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the security of the whole region," Abdollahian said.
"Through joint cooperation between Tehran and Islamabad, we will not let terrorists endanger and threaten the security of the two nations," he said, adding that Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi would soon visit Pakistan.
