Islamabad, 6 September 2022 (TDI): Saoud bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, Ambassador for Qatar called on Minister for Defence, Khawaja Muhammad Asif here in his Office in Islamabad today.
Minister for Defence welcomed the dignitary and conveyed that Pakistan attaches great value to its relations with Qatar. Qatar is an important country for Pakistan 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 also said that Pakistan and Qatar need to work closely to further extend the cooperation beyond the economic domain to defence, military exercises, and training of personnel and joint ventures.
He said Pakistan’s military institutions are open for Qatari Armed Forces to avail maximum training facilities. The Minister also highly appreciated the contribution of Qatar to the flood relief efforts.
The Qatari Ambassador highly praised the efforts of the new government and said that Qatar has confidence that the new government will deliver and Qatar is ready to cooperate with it.
The visiting dignitary acknowledged the existing scope and scale of cooperation in the field of defence between the two countries and desired to undertake joint ventures in the respective field on a progressive basis.
Pakistan-Qatar relations
Pakistan’s typically strong contacts with the Arab world have shaped Pakistan and Qatar’s relationship.
Since the outset of diplomatic ties in the early 1970s, relations between the State of Qatar and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan have been firm and strong in many areas, and these relations have been bolstered by mutual visits at the highest levels, during which a large number of agreements in the fields of politics, economy, trade exchange, investments, culture, education, and many other important fields have been signed.
Qatar, like other adjacent gulf states, has a sizable Pakistani community of more than 150 000 people. They work in various sectors and send remittances throughout the year.
Qatar gave rapid aid to Pakistan during the 2010 floods. In the aftermath of the floods, Qatar is once again providing humanitarian supplies to Pakistan.
