ISLAMABAD: Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed bin Sultan Al-Nahyan and Prime Minister Imran Khan held a one-on-one meeting in Islamabad on Sunday as the Emirati leader arrived in the capital on a day-long visit after nearly 12 years.
Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed was given a red carpet reception at Nur Khan airbase amid much fanfare in the capital.
Prime Minister Imran Khan received him personally upon his arrival and drove him to PM House where he was given a guard of honour and a fly-past during a welcome ceremony.
Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed receives a guard of honour at a welcome ceremony at PM House.
The crown prince met other members of the premier’s cabinet at the ceremony, including Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Finance Minister Asad Umar, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Commerce Abdul Razak Dawood, Planning and Development Minister Khusro Bakhtiar, and Minister of State for Interior Shahryar Afridi and Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Overseas Pakistanis Zulfi Bukhari.
Following the crown prince’s one-on-one meeting with Prime Minister Khan, the visiting delegation will hold talks with the Pakistani side.
The visit is aimed at building on the fresh momentum in ties injected by recent contacts at the leadership level, the Foreign Office earlier said.
Prime Minister Khan has visited the United Arab Emirates (UAE) twice after assuming office in August to seek economic assistance to ward off the country’s foreign exchange crisis.
Pakistan and the UAE last week finalised the terms and conditions of a $6.2bn support package for Islamabad, which the crown prince is expected to announce during his visit today.
The package is to help Islamabad address its balance of payments crisis.
According to a cabinet member, the UAE package is exactly the same size and has the same terms and conditions as those given by Saudi Arabia.
With the new package, Pakistan will save a total of about $7.9bn on oil and gas imports from the two friendly countries, accounting for over 60pc of the annual oil import bill amounting to roughly $12-13bn.
This includes about $3.2bn each of oil supplies on deferred payments from the UAE and Saudi Arabia and about $1.5bn trade finance from the International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC).
The total financing support from the UAE and Saudi Arabia, including the ITFC’s trade finance, is to be around $13.9-14bn when cash deposits of $3bn each from the two countries are also included, according to the cabinet member.
Additionally, a deep-conversion oil refinery is to be set up by Parco — a joint venture of Pakistan and Abu Dhabi — worth $5-6bn at Khalifa Point and an expected petro-chemical complex by Saudi Arabia at Gwadar Oil City.
On top of that, the government has also started backchannel discussions with Qatar for some relief in terms of reduction in LNG prices or a relaxed payment schedule, but that is now at an early stage.
Trending
- APIO delegation meets Chairman BISE to discuss the education situation
- CHC vows to support Pakistan in Social and Health sector
- CPNE condemns the attack on Gulzar Baloch, news editor of Daily Azadi Quetta, and his brother
- Larkana Range Police recover a hostage in Kacha area
- SPG opens its doors in Barcelona to host the largest edition ever
- If federation wants to provide roti at cheap rate then what is problem: IHC
- The government should provide full protection to the investors who want to build and develop the state.
- Annual Sports Gala and All Pakistan Football Championship kick-started at UoS