Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif reached Saudi Arabia on Wednesday to witness ‘Thunder of the North’ military exercises.
According to a statement, they were received at the King Saud Airport by Prince Muhammad bin Salman and other high-ranking officials.
PM’s Special Assistant Tariq Fatemi is also accompanying PM Nawaz and COAS on the three-day official visit to Riyadh.
The visit comes on the invitation of King Salman bin Abdul Aziz to witness the military exercises, as well as hold talks on the regional and bilateral issues. A number of leaders from other allied countries have also been invited to witness the ongoing military exercise and its closing ceremony.
Troops from 21 countries, including Pakistan, are participating in the exercise, in the northern region of Saudi Arabia. The main aim of the exercise is to improve training to respond to threats posed by terrorist groups.
Earlier Pakistan’s top civil and military leadership decided to expand its engagements with Saudi Arabia and will offer military training to the Saudi troops, provide it military hardware and share intelligence.
This was decided on Tuesday during a meeting, chaired by the premier in the PM House.
The meeting was attended by army chief General Raheel Sharif, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar and Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, among others.
According to sources, the participants discussed the prime minister’s and army chief’s two-day visit to Saudi Arabia – starting from today.
During the visit, Pakistani leadership will offer to expand its cooperation with Saudis apart from its support for the 34-nation coalition of Islamic countries cobbled together by Saudi Arabia to fight terrorism.
Sources said during their visit, the civil and military leadership might offer a long-term training programme for Saudi Arabia’s military.
Pakistan and India have agreed to hold a meeting of both the prime ministers during the Nuclear Security Summit to be held from March 31 to April 1 in the USA, added the sources.
