ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have decided to sign a memorandum of understanding in the middle of April to declare their respective environmental programs "sister initiatives" and strengthen bilateral collaboration in the fields of climate change, renewable energy and forestry, a senior advisor to Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Saturday.
The idea to sign the MoU was finalized during a meeting between Saudi Ambassador to Pakistan Nawaf bin Saeed Al-Maliki and Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Climate Change Malik Amin Aslam.
"During our conversation, the Saudi envoy said the kingdom was open to collaboration with Pakistan and wanted to declare their environmental projects sister initiatives," Aslam told Arab News.
"I recommended signing a formal MoU to carry forward such cooperation and the Saudi ambassador maintained that we should do it as early as possible. We have already started preparing the draft which will be signed within 10 days," he added.
Aslam said the idea began after Prime Minister Imran Khan wrote a letter to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to laud the "Green Saudi Arabia" and "Green Middle East" programs and offered his administration's assistance to the kingdom.
Khan observed that the Saudi leader's vision was closely aligned with his country's own "Clean and Green Pakistan" initiative.
"The challenge of Climate Change is one that calls for greater international collaboration and a shared aspiration for sustainable development," he wrote. "The world has no choice but to tread this green pathway and define a new development paradigm for the 21st century."
The prime minister's advisor maintained that the main idea behind formalizing the environmental cooperation with the kingdom was to create synergy by learning from each other's experiences.
"We will let Saudis be our partners in different projects since they have displayed keen interest in the billion-tree honey project and olive tree plantation," Aslam Said.