Islamabad, Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas Jilani today met with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian, in Islamabad. Senior Officials from both sides were present in the meeting. Foreign Minister Abdollahian is on an official visit to Pakistan at the invitation of Foreign Minister Jilani.

Underscoring the brotherly relations between Pakistan and Iran, Foreign Minister Jilani reaffirmed Pakistan’s commitment to deepen and broaden the existing wide-ranging cooperation with Iran.

The Foreign Minister underlined the imperative for collective and collaborative approaches to confront terrorism that posed a common challenge to both Pakistan and Iran. He stressed that robust institutional mechanisms between the two countries on security cooperation should be fully leveraged. The two Foreign Ministers agreed to immediately appoint liaison officers in Turbat and Zahidan to further strengthen ongoing security and intelligence cooperation.

Noting that security and development are intrinsically interlinked, the two Foreign Ministers agreed to expand initiatives for economic and development cooperation including through early operationalization of the joint border markets to uplift the socio-economic status of the people of both countries, especially those residing in the border regions.

The two sides also decided to establish a Joint Coordination Mechanism at the level of Foreign Ministers to oversee and steer progress on common agenda for prosperity and development of the two peoples.

Regular high-level engagements provide a leadership driven impetus to the bilateral relations between Pakistan and Iran. In this backdrop, the Foreign Minister renewed invitation to honourable President of Iran, Ebrahim Raisi to undertake a visit to Pakistan.