ISLAMABAD: Saudi Arabia Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud on Thursday held meetings with Prime Minister Imran Khan and counterpart Shah Mehmood Qureshi during his maiden one-day visit to Pakistan.
Upon his arrival at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) office, he was received by Qureshi. Both foreign ministers, during a delegation-level meeting, discussed bilateral relations, regional situation and matters of mutual interest.
Qureshi thanked Saudi Arabia for supporting Pakistan’s stance on occupied Kashmir and both sides agreed to continue holding bilateral meetings on the issue. The delegation-level talks between the two sides were followed by a one-on-one meeting between Foreign Minister Qureshi and Prince Faisal.
Their meeting was followed by the Saudi FM’s call on the PM, which was also attended by Qureshi.
According to reports, the purpose of the trip was to thank Prime Minister Imran for not attending Kuala Lumpur Summit which was held in Malaysia earlier this month.
Earlier this month, the prime minister had decided not to attend the KL Summit — which was held in Kuala Lumpur and was attended by leaders of Muslim countries including Iran, Qatar and Turkey as well as religious scholars.
Pakistan was one of the first countries with whom Prime Minister Mahathir shared his plans for holding the summit when he had met Prime Minister Imran along with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) session in New York in September this year.
Later on, PM Imran had formally conveyed his acceptance of the invitation for attending the summit when Malaysian Deputy Foreign Minister Marzuki Bin Haji Yahya had called on him in Islamabad in November.
