ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan is expected to travel to Saudi Arabia soon as part of Pakistan’s continued efforts to facilitate rapprochement between Riyadh and Tehran.
Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, also accompanied by the head of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), visited Riyadh on Wednesday and believed to have laid the ground for the premier’s visit.
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The visit, an Arab source disclosed, has been recently planned after signals from Riyadh that it was not happy with Prime Minister Imran Khan’s decision to attend Kuala Lumpur summit being held in Malaysia from Dec 18-20.
The Kuala Lumpur summit is the brainchild of Malaysian Prime Minister Dr Tun Mahathir Mohamad.
Other leaders participating in the summit are Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani and Iranian President Hasan Rouhani.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo too was expected to attend the summit, but he has reportedly succumbed to pressure and one of his representatives would now attend the meeting.
Although it is too early to say how this initiative fares, the Saudis are already seeing the summit as an attempt to present an alternative to the Jeddah-based Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).
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Visit planned after signals kingdom is not happy with Imran’s decision to attend Kuala Lumpur summit
The increasingly dysfunctional OIC works under the de-facto leadership of the Saudis.
Pakistan, meanwhile, is very keen about the summit. The Foreign Office said.
“The KL summit would provide Pakistan with an opportunity to exchange views and find solutions to challenges facing the Muslim world, particularly the governance, development, terrorism and Islamophobia.
The summit will also provide us an opportunity to foster cooperation in diverse areas with the participating countries.”
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