ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa’s recent visit to Saudi Arabia is a testament to “unchanged fraternal relations” between the two countries, the Pakistani Foreign Office said on Thursday.

Bajwa visited Riyadh earlier this week and met Saudi Deputy Minister of Defense Prince Khalid bin Salman to discuss security cooperation. Bajwa’s visit was “primarily military-affairs oriented,” the Pakistan army’s media wing had said about the trip.

The visit came on the heels of statements by Pakistani foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi over the Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC) being lukewarm on the Kashmir territorial dispute, which created controversy last week.

“The long-term strategic relationship between the two brotherly countries is time-tested and will continue to grow to our mutual benefit,” foreign office spokesperson Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri said at a press briefing in Islamabad, adding that the visit testified “the unchanged fraternal relations and close contact between the two brotherly countries.”

Chaudhri said the OIC had played an important role in the Kashmir dispute and had deputed a special envoy and created a contact group specifically on the issue.

The Himalayan region has been at the heart of tensions between Hindu-majority India and Muslim Pakistan for decades, the cause of two of the three wars between the nuclear-armed neighbors. Both countries claim the region in full, but each rules only in part.

On August 5, 2019, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi split the state of Jammu and Kashmir into two federally controlled territories and took away its special privileges, sparking tensions with Pakistan.

“The contact group on Jammu and Kashmir has held four meetings so far on the issue of Jammu and Kashmir since India’s illegal actions of August 5, 2019 and three of those meetings were held at the level of foreign ministers,” the spokesperson said. “Pakistan commended Saudi Arabia’s important role in OIC contact group on Jammu and Kashmir.”

Speaking about relations with Saudi Arabia, Chaudhri said the two nations had “strong” economic, political, security and military cooperation at all levels.

“The relations between the two brotherly countries have continued to grow over the time,” he said. “The long term strategic relationship between the two brotherly countries is time-tested and will continue to grow for our mutual benefit.”

The ties, Chaudhri said, had been consolidated by last year’s visits to Saudi Arabia by Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan and the visit of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to Pakistan in February 2019.

In response to a question on the current situation in the Middle East and a normalization deal between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, the spokesman said the recognition of Israel by Pakistan was not under consideration.

“Peace and stability in the Middle East region remains Pakistan’s key priority,” he said. “There is no change in Pakistan’s position on Palestine.”

Pakistani minister for science and technology Fawad Chaudhry also met the Saudi ambassador to Pakistan Nawaf bin Saeed Al-Malki on Thursday.

"Pakistan-Saudi Arabia relations are not limited to the government level but these relations are between the Saudi and Pakistani people," Chaudhry was quoted as saying in a statement.

Chaudhry briefed the Saudi ambassador about ongoing projects in the ministry of science and technology and urged him to push Saudi companies to invest in Pakistan's agricultural sector.