Pakistan’s Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Ahmad Farooq praised close ties between his country and Saudi Arabia, highlighting recent four-party meetings, Saudi economic support and defense cooperation between the two countries.
Farooq told Asharq Al-Awsat that the quartet meetings — held three times consecutively over the past month among the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Türkiye and Egypt — “come within the framework of ongoing efforts to promote peace in the region.”
The four countries’ foreign ministers held three consultative and coordination meetings, in addition to a meeting of senior officials.
The first meeting took place in Riyadh on March 19, where participants discussed Iranian escalation in the region and stressed the importance of continued consultation and coordination of joint efforts to achieve security and stability.
The second meeting was held on March 29 in Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, during which the foreign ministers met Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
Pakistan later hosted a consultative meeting of senior officials from the four countries on April 14, which its foreign ministry said followed up on the previous consultative meeting. Its recommendations were to be submitted to the next foreign ministers’ meeting, held Saturday in Antalya, Türkiye.
The Pakistani ambassador expressed his country’s appreciation for Saudi economic support, noting that it “reflects the close relations between the two countries and Saudi Arabia’s commitment to maintaining Pakistan’s economic stability.”
Saudi Arabia recently announced the extension of a $5 billion deposit with Pakistan’s central bank, along with an additional $3 billion deposit. On Friday, it also announced a grant to support the “Green Pakistan” initiative as part of efforts to promote sustainable agricultural development in Pakistan.
Regarding the Saudi Defense Ministry’s April 11 announcement of the arrival of a Pakistani military contingent at King Abdulaziz Air Base in the Kingdom’s Eastern Region under a joint strategic defense agreement, Farooq said the deployment “comes as part of efforts to enhance bilateral cooperation between the two militaries and raise the operational readiness of the armed forces, as stipulated in the defense agreement signed in 2025.”
Saudi Arabia and Pakistan share decades-long strategic relations that have evolved into a multi-dimensional partnership.
Sharif recently visited Saudi Arabia twice within a month. The visits were preceded by a trip by Pakistan’s army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, to Riyadh, where he met Saudi Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman on March 7.
