ISLAMABAD: After signing of the defense pact last month, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia are fast moving to enhance economic cooperation and some major announcements are expected during Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif’s visit to Riyadh by the end of this month, Pakistan’s Federal Minister for National Food Security Rana Tanveer Hussain said on Thursday.
Hussain was part of a Pakistani delegation that included several ministers and other officials who visited Saudi Arabia last week to fine-tune an economic cooperation framework between the two countries.
Pakistan and Saudi Arabia signed a landmark defense pact during Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif’s visit to Riyadh last month. While the pact says any aggression against one country shall be considered an aggression against both, the two allies are also moving to further enhance economic ties after signing 34 memoranda of understanding worth $2.8 billion in October 2024.
“In the follow-up [to the defense pact], we went there [Saudi Arabia] to formalize [economic agreements] because when the prime minister goes to Saudi Arabia again, he will make some announcements,” the food security minister told Arab News in an interview. “So, we went there to follow up and see how we can formally see what can be done [and] in which areas.”
