COAS arrives in Saudi Arabia to revive strained ties

Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa arrived in Saudi Arabia on Monday, the Pakistan embassy in Riyadh said, amid a diplomatic spat that has threatened Riyadh's financial life line to the country.

Bajwa arrived in Riyadh at 10am, the embassy said. The head of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), General Faiz Hameed, is accompanying Bajwa. The two countries are traditionally close and Saudi Arabia in 2018 gave Pakistan a $3 billion loan and $3.2bn oil credit facility to help its balance of payments crisis.

But Riyadh is irked by criticism from Pakistan that Saudi Arabia has been lukewarm on the Kashmir issue, two senior military officials had told Reuters, motivating the army chief's planned visit.

Last week, the military's media affairs wing had confirmed that the COAS was travelling, though the official line was that the visit was pre-planned and "primarily military affairs oriented". Pakistan has long pressed the Saudi-led Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC) to convene a high-level meeting to highlight Indian violations in occupied Kashmir.

But the OIC has only held lowlevel meetings so far. On August 5, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi had said: "I am once again respectfully telling the OIC that a meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers is our expectation.

"If you cannot convene it, then I'll be compelled to ask Prime Minister Imran Khan to call a meeting of the Islamic countries that are ready to stand with us on the issue of Kashmir and support the oppressed Kashmiris." Qureshi said that Pakistan had skipped the Kuala Lumpur Summit last December on Saudi Arabia's request and now Pakistani Muslims were demanding Riyadh "show leadership on the issue".

"We have our own sensitivities. You have to realise this. Gulf countries should understand this," the foreign minister had said, adding that he could no more indulge in diplomatic niceties.

He had made it clear that he was not being emotional and fully understood the implications of his statement. "It's right, I'm taking a position despite our good ties with Saudi Arabia," he said. The Foreign Office (FO) had later defended the minister's remarks, saying his was a reflection of people's aspirations and expectations from the OIC to raise the Kashmir issue internationally.

Speaking at a weekly press briefing, the FO spokesperson had said that the people of Pakistan had more expectations from the OIC and would like it to play a leading role in raising the Kashmir issue internationally.