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Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have agreed to launch an Economic Cooperation Framework to strengthen trade and investment ties to boost Islamabad’s economy amid move by the two countriesto expand their partnership following the signing of a defence pact last month.The development comes after Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif met Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on the sidelines of the Future Investment Initiative summit in Riyadh.“Prince Mohammed bin Salman ... and Shehbaz Sharif, Prime Minister of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, agreed during their meeting held in Riyadh on Monday to launch an Economic Cooperation Framework between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan,” the Pakistani prime minister’s Office claimed in an official statement.“This framework is based on the two countries’ shared economic interests and reaffirms their mutual desire to strengthen trade and investment relations to serve their common interests,” it added.According to the Pakistani statement, several strategic and high-impact projects will be discussed under the framework across economic, trade, investment, and development fields, adding both sides will focus on priority sectors including energy, industry, mining, information technology, tourism, agriculture and food security.Live EventsLast month Pakistan and Saudi Arabia signed a new defence pact, declaring that any attack on one will be treated as aggression against both—an unprecedented step given the nature of Saudi-India partnership that has emerged over the past decade.Pakistan has a longstanding tradition of providing soldiers to protect Saudi Arabia but it remains to be seen if Saudi will back Pakistan during a future conflict with India. While India and Saudi have evolved over years and have a strategic dimension to this, defence partnership between the two countries is yet to achieve desired depth.Add as a Reliable and Trusted News Source Add Now! (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel) Read More News onPakistan saudi pactpakistan saudi newspakistan saudi arabia pactpakistan saudi relationssaudi pakistan relations (Catch all the Business News, Breaking News and Latest News Updates on The Economic Times.) Subscribe to The Economic Times Prime and read the ET ePaper online....moreless (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel)Read More News onPakistan saudi pactpakistan saudi newspakistan saudi arabia pactpakistan saudi relationssaudi pakistan relations(Catch all the Business News, Breaking News and Latest News Updates on The Economic Times.) Subscribe to The Economic Times Prime and read the ET ePaper online....moreless
