ISLAMABAD/ABU DHABI: Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi left on Saturday for an official visit to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with a focus on trade, employment opportunities, and regional security situation, Radio Pakistan reported.
As FM @SMQureshiPTI departs for #UAE 🇦🇪, here’s a recap of 🇵🇰🇦🇪 brotherly bilateral relations. #PakFMinUAE pic.twitter.com/dRI7Wnw96y
— Spokesperson 🇵🇰 MoFA (@ForeignOfficePk) April 17, 2021
During the three-day visit, Qureshi will call on his Emirati counterpart Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan and other dignitaries.
The foreign minister will also hold meetings with the Emirati leadership on all segments of bilateral cooperation, including trade and investment, regional and global developments, job opportunities for Pakistan nationals and the welfare of the Pakistani diaspora residing in the sheikhdom.
He will also meet members of the diaspora community and interact with domestic and international media organisations. The Emirates is home to the second-largest Pakistani community abroad.
The two countries enjoy strong fraternal ties, rooted deep in common faith and shared history and values, a statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) said.
Regular high-level interactions and visits between the two nations have played a pivotal role in providing further impetus to strengthening bilateral cooperation and collaboration on a wide range of issues, it added.
Abu Dhabi is Islamabad’s largest trading partner in the Middle East and has supported Pakistan in the areas of education, health, energy and infrastructure development under the UAE-Pakistan Assistance Programme (UAE-PAP) launched in 2011 by President Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
UAE MEDIATING BETWEEN PAKISTAN, INDIA:
The visit comes on the heels of reports of the UAE playing a role in getting Pakistan and India to agree to a cease-fire amid tensions over the disputed region of Kashmir.
The comments by UAE ambassador in Washington Yousef al-Otaiba came on Wednesday. Speaking in a video released by Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, al-Otaiba acknowledged an Emirati role “in bringing the Kashmir escalation down” between the two nations.
“We try to be helpful where we have influence with two different countries,” al-Otaiba told H.R. McMaster, a former national security adviser to former US president Donald Trump. “India and Pakistan was the most recent one.”
Al-Otaiba acknowledged in his remarks that Pakistan and India “might not sort of become best friends,” but that such communication is important.
“At least we want to get it to a level where it’s functional, where it’s operational, where they are speaking to each other, where there’s lines of communication,” he said. “That’s our goal.”
