ISLAMABAD: Iran will soon send a high-level delegation led by Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni to Pakistan to expand cooperation across sectors including agriculture, industry, trade, transport, tourism and foreign affairs, Iranian state media reported on Saturday.
The planned visit signals an effort by Tehran and Islamabad to broaden bilateral engagement beyond security cooperation and border management toward closer economic and commercial ties. Pakistan and Iran have sought to strengthen trade and investment in recent months while also expanding cooperation in agriculture, energy, border security and religious tourism.
The visit also comes as Pakistan has assumed a more prominent diplomatic role in the region following months of conflict between Iran and the United States. Islamabad has facilitated contacts and mediated talks between Tehran and Washington in recent months while simultaneously working to deepen bilateral relations with Iran, including through high-level exchanges and agreements aimed at expanding economic cooperation.
“This delegation will include senior officials from the ministries of agriculture, industry, mining and trade, roads and urban development, foreign affairs, cultural heritage, tourism, and handicrafts,” Iran’s official IRNA news agency reported after a joint press conference between Momeni and Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi in Tehran.
Naqvi, who traveled to Iran as part of Pakistan’s high-level delegation attending the funeral of Iran’s late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, welcomed the planned visit.
“Arrangements have been made for the Iranian delegation’s visit to Islamabad and we are happy that the Iranian interior minister will head the delegation,” Naqvi said, according to IRNA.
The report said Iran had also agreed to facilitate overland travel for Pakistani pilgrims attending this year’s Arbaeen commemorations. Arbaeen, one of the world’s largest annual religious gatherings, marks the end of a 40-day mourning period for Imam Hussain, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad (push), with hundreds of thousands of Pakistani pilgrims traveling through Iran to holy sites in neighboring Iraq each year.
The planned visit follows discussions held during Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian’s visit to Islamabad in June, when both countries agreed to deepen cooperation in trade, agriculture and security.
