Pakistan 'looks forward to working closely' with UAE for economic stability

ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, and his United Arab Emirates (UAE) counterpart Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan on Friday discussed the sustained momentum of multi-tiered cooperation between the two countries.

FM Dar received a congratulatory telephone call from his UAE counterpart on Friday today, the former wrote on his X timeline.

“I look forward to working closely with His Highness in transforming the bilateral relations with the UAE into a mutually beneficial economic partnership,” the foreign minister added.

After the formation of new government, Ishaq Dar has been inducted into federal cabinet led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on March 11 in which the portfolio of the foreign affairs minister was given to the senior politician.

Dar has been a member of the Senate from 2003 to 2022. He has earlier served as finance minister from 1998 to 1999, then from March to May 2008.

Dar again led the finance ministry from 2013 to 2017 and then from 2022 to 2023. He was also the minister of industry and investment from February 1997 to July 1997 as well as commerce from December 1997 to October 1999. Previously, Dar was named as the Leader of Opposition in the Senate from March 2012 to June 2013.

In January 2023, the UAE pledged additional $1 billion loan to Pakistan grappling with a severe economic crisis, as well as agreed to roll over an existing loan of $2 billion.

The UAE is also Pakistan’s largest trading partner in the Middle East, and North Africa (MENA) region with an average annual trade of $8 billion, with food and textile as major items to the gulf nation, while the volume of bilateral trade was hiked by 25.4% in 2021-22, amounting to $10.6 billion.