ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar on Friday praised the United Arab Emirates for agreeing to hold the Pak-UAE Joint Ministerial Commission (JMC) meeting next month after more than 10 years during a phone call with UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Ahmed bin Ali Al Sayegh.
Dar is currently on a five-day visit to the United Kingdom where he has met top British officials and interacted with members of the Pakistani diaspora.
The Pakistani deputy PM, who also holds the foreign minister’s portfolio, took the UAE minister’s phone call in which they discussed other issues of mutual interest.
“UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Ahmed bin Ali Al Sayegh, spoke with Deputy Prime Minister/ Foreign Minister @MIshaqDar50 who is currently visiting the UK,” the Pakistan foreign office said in a social media post. “They discussed OIC [Organization of Islamic Cooperation] related issues and key areas of bilateral cooperation in the field of trade and investment.”
“[Dar] welcomed the holding of 12th session of Pak-UAE Joint Ministerial Commission in the UAE next month after a hiatus of 13 years,” the post added.
Pakistani media reported earlier last week the Pak-UAE JMC was scheduled to take place on October 1, adding it would focus on different economic and financial fields.
The two countries are expected to hold a joint business council meeting on the sidelines of the JMC and work toward the establishment on greater business-to-business relations.
The UAE is Pakistan’s third largest trading partner after China and the United States. Policymakers in Pakistan consider the Emirates an optimal export destination due to geographical proximity, which minimizes transportation and freight costs while facilitating commercial transactions.
The UAE is also home to more than a million Pakistani expatriates and the second-largest source of remittances to the South Asian country after Saudi Arabia.
