Pakistan, Saudi Arabia discuss expanding cooperation in digital infrastructure and services
KARACHI: Pakistan and Saudi Arabia on Friday discussed expanding cooperation in digital infrastructure and services during a meeting between Pakistan’s IT minister Shaza Fatima Khawaja and officials of the Saudi Telecom Company (STC) in Riyadh, as both nations push to diversify their decades-long partnership.
The two countries have long enjoyed close ties, but in recent years have sought to broaden and deepen their cooperation further. During Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s visit to Riyadh in October 2024, they signed 34 memoranda of understanding worth $2.8 billion across multiple sectors.
Last month, they went a step further by signing a bilateral defense pact that treats aggression against one country as an attack on both, a move aimed at strengthening joint deterrence and cementing decades of military and security collaboration.
“Partnership with STC was discussed in the context of the Connect Pakistan 2030 policy,” the IT ministry said in a statement issued after the meeting, referring to a proposed five-year strategy to accelerate the country’s digital transformation.
