Malaysian Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohammad arrives in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister of Malaysia, Mahathir Mohamad, has arrived in Islamabad on a three-day visit, ARY News reported Thursday.

Prime Minister Imran Khan welcomed Mahathir Mohamad as he landed in Pakistan. Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Khusro Bakhtiar and other ministers were also present on the occasion.

The Malaysian prime minister is accompanied by a high-level delegation including several leading businessmen.

A 21-gun salute was given to PM Mahathir upon his arrival at the Prime Minister House.

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Prime Minister Mohamad will be the guest of honour at the Pakistan Day Parade on 23rd March.

The Malaysian prime minister would also call on President Arif Alvi and will hold a one-on-one meeting with Prime Minister Imran Khan.

Delegation-level talks would follow after which Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) will be signed by Malaysian investors, who would invest up to $900 million dollars.

Prime Minister’s advisor on commerce Abdul Razak Dawood said that the sectors in which MoUs will be signed include telecommunications, IT, power generation, agriculture, textile, and halal foods, Radio Pakistan quoted him as saying.

“We believe Malaysia will be an opening for us to the ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations) countries,” Dawood said.

The two premiers will also speak at the round-table meeting of the CEOs of industries, who desire to invest in automobile and telecommunication sectors of Pakistan.

Meanwhile, Foreign Office Spokesperson Dr Muhammad Faisal, in a statement said the visit of the Malaysian Prime Minister would further cement the existing brotherly and friendly relations between the two countries.

Mohamad was formally invited on Nov 29, 2018, by Pakistan to visit the country. Pakistani High Commissioner Nafees Zakaria met the dignitary and delivered an invitation to the Malaysian PM on behalf of the country.

The invitation was a follow up of a verbal invitation from the Prime Minister Imran Khan to his Malaysian counterpart during his two-day long visit to the Southeast Asian country in November.

While addressing a joint news conference with his Malaysian counterpart in Kuala Lumpur, PM Imran Khan had said Pakistan wanted to learn from Malaysia’s experience of turning around economy, trade, and development in other sectors.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr Mahathir Mohamad said Malaysia and Pakistan face similar challenges and it has been decided to cooperate with one another to cope with them.