Abu Dhabi Crown Prince to visit Pak to boost ties

Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Sheikh Mohammad bin Zayed Al Nahyan will arrive for a day-long visit to Pakistan on Thursday and meet Prime Minister Imran Khan to discuss ways to strengthen the bilateral ties, media reports said on Wednesday.

During his visit, the Crown Prince will also hold meetings with the top Pakistani officials including Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi.

Prime minister Khan and the Crown Prince will also exchange views on "matters of mutual interest and the regional and global situation", the Dawn quoted UAE's ambassador in Islamabad as saying in a statement.

It said the visit is aimed "to further strengthen the bonds of friendship between the two brotherly countries".

This will be the Crown Prince's second visit to Pakistan since Khan took office in August 2018. He had last visited Pakistan on January 6 last year, just weeks after his country offered USD 3 billion financial assistance to Pakistan to deal with its balance of payment crisis.

This is also the second visit by an Arab leader in just two weeks. Last month, Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud visited Pakistan for a day-long trip.

Riyadh has said that it will host a meeting of the foreign ministers of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on the Kashmir issue.

The Saudi minister arrived after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said last month that Riyadh had issued economic threats to Pakistan and pressured it into withdrawing from the Kuala Lumpur summit of leaders of Islamic nations in Malaysia.

The summit was seen by Riyadh as an attempt to create a new bloc to replace the dysfunctional OIC led by Saudi Arabia.

The Saudi embassy in Islamabad dismissed the reports that it pressured Pakistan to pull out of the summit.

Khan had confirmed Pakistan's participation in the summit hosted by Malaysia, but skipped the event at the eleventh hour. The decision to pull out of the summit came after his visit to Riyadh for a meeting with the Saudi leadership.