Pakistan PM to visit Saudi Arabia tomorrow to thank Kingdom for solidarity during India conflict
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will travel to Saudi Arabia tomorrow, Thursday, to thank the Kingdom's leadership for its support to Pakistan during its recent conflict with India, Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar said.
Saudi Arabia was actively involved in defusing tensions between India and Pakistan as the two countries engaged in four days of intense fighting last month before agreeing to a ceasefire on May 10.
Saudi Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel Al-Jubeir also paid a daylong visit to Pakistan on May 9, which followed his surprise stop in New Delhi for talks with Indian officials as the fighting continued.
'For your information, we are visiting KSA [Kingdom of Saudi Arabia] tomorrow [Thursday] for 24 hours,' Dar told reporters at a news briefing in Islamabad.
'The prime minister will go tomorrow, and I will also go with him. We will go there to thank them for their solidarity and support.'
Dar, who also serves as Pakistan's foreign minister, said the Kingdom's leadership, especially Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, was in touch with Islamabad throughout the conflict.
Nuclear-armed India and Pakistan engaged in four days of fighting, the worst between them since 1999, last month following weeks of tension after New Delhi blamed Islamabad for being involved in an attack at an Indian-administered Kashmir tourist resort.
Islamabad denied it was involved in the April 22 attack that had killed 26 Indian tourists, calling for a credible, international probe.
After both countries traded missiles, drone strikes, artillery fire and used fighter jets to bomb each other for four days, US President Donald Trump announced on May 10 that Washington had brokered a ceasefire between India and Pakistan.
While the ceasefire continues to hold, tensions remain high as India has vowed to hold a decades-old water-sharing treaty with Pakistan in abeyance.
Islamabad has vowed that any attempt to disrupt or divert its flow of water will be considered an 'act of war.'
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