The United Arab Emirates has agreed to roll over the payment of $2 billion due by Pakistan this month, the South Asian nation's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Tuesday.
Shehbaz Sharif © PNS
The United Arab Emirates has agreed to roll over the payment of $2 billion due by Pakistan this month, the South Asian nation's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Tuesday.
Sharif said he met with UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahya while he was on a personal visit to Pakistan on Sunday.
"In a one-on-one meeting he said...there is a $2 billion dollar repayment due and we are extending this," Sharif told reporters in a televised press conference..
"I asked for the UAE to invest a few billion dollars in key investment projects and that would be helpful," Sharif added.
"He said the UAE was committed to this investment and the two countries share brotherly ties," he said.
Securing external financing has previously been a key condition for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to approve bail-out deals for the cash-strapped nation.
The next review by the IMF of its $7 billion, 37-month loan programe to Pakistan is expected in February.
Pakistan's $350 billion economy has struggled for decades with boom-and-bust cycles, needing 23 IMF bailouts since 1958.
By Gibran Naiyyar Peshimam
Saudi Arabia and Syria signed a cooperation agreement between the two countries' defense ministries on Wednesday, Saudi state news agency SPA reported, as Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi group continues its missile and drone attacks on the kingdom.
Ankara rejected on Wednesday what it called the "prejudiced and unfair" stance of the European Union towards fundamental rights and the judiciary in Turkey, and regarding Cyprus, contained in the bloc's report on EU membership candidates.
Turkey's parliament is set on Wednesday to ratify a defence pact with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan that includes a collective defence clause, committing NATO's second-largest army to Riyadh's defence as it faces attacks by Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis.
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