Growing Pak-Saudi trade relations.

Pakistan has enjoyed a cordially relations with Saudi Arabia since its birth. The relations are rooted in the centuries old religious, cultural and commercial links. Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have an unprecedented relationship, ready to help each other at needed time and space. These relations are based on solid foundations of Islamic ideology and traditional Islamic values. The spiritual affection the people of Pakistan have for the Holy Places (the Kaaba Tullah and Masjid al-Nabawi) and with the people of the Holy land reinforce the bilateral relationship between both countries.

The ideological foundations of Pakistan further contributed to bringing both countries together and their people. Soon after its independence, Pakistan attained an exceptional and very high-ranking political status among the Muslim world. Starting from almost zero in 1947, Pakistan extended political and economic support to many countries in the 1960s. Besides, it developed its armed forces matching the global standards of military professionalism and a high degree of competence. On the other hand, King Abdul Aziz and his successors developed the Kingdom and Saudi nation from a scattered desert region to a modern, dynamic and progressive nation-state.

Basis for cooperation

A Treaty of Friendship was signed by the two countries as early as in 1951, laying the basis for cooperation. Bilateral relations were buttressed over the coming decades by a tradition of strong financial and strategic assistance extended to each other by the two brotherly countries whenever required. As a pioneer treaty, it defined the future direction of the relationship between both states and laid down the formal basis for bilateral cooperation. The treaty also readdressed historical connections, spiritual affiliations, strategic partnerships, and social relationships.

In the Middle East, the newly formed nation-states were in turmoil after WW II. Saudi Arabia played a major role in the regional stability, peace, and economic prosperity of the Arab world. From its establishment in the early 1930s to the present day, the Kingdom passed through numerous domestic and external challenges, which were handled with wisdom, national resolve, and deterrence from any external aggression. As a member of the OIC, Pakistan supported Saudi Arabia and the rest of the Arab world in their wars against the Israeli illegal occupation of the Arab land (Palestine). Within the scope of the Treaty of Friendship and other bilateral understandings, Pakistan helped Saudi Arabia to overcome some of the worst domestic upheavals and external security threats it confronted. Pakistan military played a contributory role in the development of Saudi armed forces and cooperation is continuously extended to date.

The political leadership of both countries frequently consult each other on regional and global issues in a well-defined cooperative mechanism. On the economic front, there has been mutuality between both states ever since the 1980s.

The elementary bases of a strategic relationship between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia are historical, pragmatic, and sentimental. This relationship emerged much before the Kingdom became oil-rich, which rejects the analogy that the economy is defining factor of the Pak-Saudi relationship.

On the economic front, Anwar Ali, a Pakistani economist, was Governor of the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (Saudi Central Bank) from 1958 to 1974. Saudi economy was boosted under the able leadership of Anwar Ali, who gave it a new vision and future orientation. Over the...