ISLAMABAD: Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud, will arrive in Islamabad on a daylong visit on Thursday, said the Pakistan Foreign Office in a statement.

“The Foreign Minister of Saudi Arabia, His Highness Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud, will be visiting Islamabad on 26 December 2019. He will hold a meeting with Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and call on Prime Minister Imran Khan,” the FO said Wednesday evening.

This would be his maiden visit to Pakistan, during which the exchange of views would cover bilateral relations and issues of mutual interest, the statement added.

Noting that Pakistan and Saudi Arabia enjoy a deep-rooted and longstanding fraternal relationship, the foreign office said, “The two countries are committed to further strengthening bilateral cooperation in all fields.”

 “Frequent high-level visits are a key feature of the relationship and serve to further deepen and broaden mutual collaboration,” Islamabad said.

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister for Overseas Pakistanis, Sayed Zulfikar Bukhari, told Arab News over the phone that the Saudi foreign minister’s visit was a “very positive development” and that relations between the two countries were “far better than in the past.” 

“It is now part of regular interaction. Our foreign minister visited Saudi Arabia last week and their FM is visiting Pakistan on Thursday,” Bukhari said.

“Saudi Arabia is one of the friendliest allies of Pakistan that stood with us whenever we were in trouble,” the PM’s aide said. 

He said that Pakistani premier and the Saudi crown prince have very good personal relations while, at the country level, our manpower to Saudi Arabia increased by 207 percent due to better understanding between the two brotherly Islamic countries.

Bukhari said that the visit of the Saudi foreign minister had nothing to do with the Malaysia summit and that Pakistan had moved past beyond that issue.

“We have also addressed Saudi reservations regarding KL Summit so now it is in the past and our increased interactions with Saudi Arabia are now a consistent feature due to Pakistan’s vibrant foreign policy,” he said.