Abu Dhabi Crown Prince meets PM Imran on day-long visit to Pakistan

ISLAMABAD (January 6, 2019): Sheikh Muhammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of United Arab Emirates (UAE) Armed Forces, met Prime Minister Imran Khan on a day-long visit to Pakistan today.

The two sides discussed bilateral relations and matters of mutual, regional and international interests.

After the visit, the UAE crown prince left for his home country after the brief visit.

Prime Minister Imran Khan earlier welcomed the dignitary upon his arrival at Nur Khan Airbase. A guard of honour was accorded to the crown prince as he disembarked from the jet, followed by a 21 gun salute.

An official welcome ceremony was held at Prime Minister House, Islamabad in honour of the crown prince. A smartly turned out contingent of Pakistan Armed Forces presented a guard of honour to him while the JF 17 Thunder presented a salute to the crown prince.

The national anthems of both the countries were also played on the occasion.

This was the third interaction between the leadership of Pakistan and UAE in less than three months. UAE is Pakistan’s largest trading partner in the Middle East and a major source of investments. It is home to more than 1.6 million expatriate community which contributes around $4.5 billion annually to the GDP, a press release said earlier.

Pakistan and UAE are already working closely to transform the existing special relations into a “Long-Term Strategic Economic Partnership”, as agreed between the two leaders during the prime minister’s visit to UAE on November 18.