Khattak calls for strengthening defence ties with Qatar, Egypt

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Defence Pervez Khattak received Ambassador for Qatar Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahman Al Thani called discussed a wide range of bilateral issues.

The Defence Minister conveyed that Pakistan attaches great value to its relations with Qatar, adding that it is an important country and has a key role to play in the region. He said Pakistan’s relations with Qatar are very smooth governed by mutual respect and cooperation.

The minister said that they need to work closely to further extend our cooperation beyond the economic domain to defence, military exercises and training of personals and joint ventures. He said military institutions are open for Qatari Armed Forces to avail maximum training facilities.

The Qatari Ambassador highly praised the efforts of the government and expressed confidence it will deliver and that the Gulf State was ready to cooperate.

Later the defence minister had a separate meeting with Egyptian Ambassador Tarek Dahrough. Khattak said Pakistan considers Egypt a close friend and an important country in the region as well as the Islamic World.

“Egypt and Pakistan share similarly of views on most regional and internal issues, especially those concerning the Muslim Ummah. Therefore, there exists great scope for both countries to work closely with each other in diverse fields,” he said.

The ambassador acknowledged the existing scope and scale of cooperation in the field of defence between the two countries and desired to undertake the joint ventures.