Islamabad (TDI): Chairman Senate and Acting President Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani received the Ambassador of Italy Marilina Armellin, at Aiwan-e-Sadr, where the two discussed ways to further strengthen bilateral relations and enhance cooperation across multiple sectors.
During the meeting, the Acting President said Pakistan and Italy share more than 75 years of diplomatic relations built on mutual respect, friendship, and collaboration at international forums. He appreciated Italy’s continued support at multilateral platforms and thanked the Italian government for hosting a large Pakistani community of over 300,000 people.
Gilani noted the presence of several Italian companies in Pakistan, particularly in pharmaceuticals, oil and gas and railways, and underscored Pakistan’s interest in expanding trade and investment ties.
He also emphasized the need for faster visa processing for Pakistanis travelling to Italy and looked forward to an increased quota of skilled workers under the labour migration program, for which a MoU between the two countries is under process.
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The Italian Ambassador said that Italy deeply cherishes its long-standing friendship with Pakistan and noted that Pakistan was among the first countries with which the Italian Republic established diplomatic relations.
She shared that in 2025, Italy issued visas to over 15,000 Pakistani students who got admission to Italian universities for postgraduate and PhD programs.
Referring to Italy’s shortage of skilled manpower, particularly in scientific, IT-related fields and healthcare, she said Italian institutions welcomed initiatives by Pakistani universities to offer Italian language courses to improve employment prospects.
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The meeting reaffirmed the shared commitment to further deepen bilateral cooperation in education, migration, trade and people-to-people exchanges.
Sohail Majeed
Sohail Majeed is a Special Correspondent at The Diplomatic Insight. He has twelve plus years of experience in journalism & reporting. He covers International Affairs, Diplomacy, UN, Sports, Climate Change, Economy, Technology, and Health.
