The Saudi finance minister was in Islamabad on Saturday in a show of “economic support”, a source familiar with the matter told AFP, days after Pakistan said it would return billions in loans to Riyadh’s ally-turned-rival the UAE.
Minister Mohammed al-Jadaan had met with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif a day earlier, according to the premier’s office, which said Islamabad was committed to expanding cooperation “in trade, investment, and economic development”.
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Jadaan’s visit comes as Islamabad hosts US-Iran talks aimed at ending the Middle East war, which he is not attending.
The trip was the latest sign of new alliances emerging in the Gulf amid the ongoing rift between the region’s two powerhouses.
“He is there as a show of economic support for Pakistan,” the source familiar with the matter said.
Cash-strapped Pakistan recently said it would return more than $3 billion in loans to the UAE that Abu Dhabi had been rolling over since 2018.
Islamabad is dependent on IMF bailouts and loans from friendly countries such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE to service its huge debt, which swallows up half of its annual revenues.
The UAE and Saudi Arabia were once close partners, but relations have soured in recent years as the neighbours found themselves at odds in Yemen, Sudan and the Horn of Africa.
Pakistan, along with Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Turkey, has been engaged in efforts to find an off-ramp to the US-Israeli war on Iran, which has seen the Gulf bear the brunt of Tehran’s retaliatory strikes.
The UAE has sustained more Iranian attacks than any other country.
It has also shown a more hawkish posture towards Tehran, warning against solutions that stop short of addressing its full range of threats and securing freedom of navigation.
While Abu Dhabi has not directly commented on the efforts to find a diplomatic solution, some Emirati pundits and analysts have lambasted Egypt and Pakistan in social media posts for their role in the mediation.
Last month, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Turkey held talks about trying to end the war in the Middle East.
The kingdom enjoys close military ties with nuclear-armed Pakistan, with which it signed a mutual defence pact last year.
Saudi state media reported on Saturday that Pakistani fighter jets had landed in the kingdom under the auspices of the defence pact.
