Daily Times

Pakistan’s deputy prime minister and foreign minister, Ishaq Dar, will undertake a two-day official visit to Iran on Dec. 2-3 to attend the 28th meeting of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) Council of Ministers, the Pakistani foreign office said on Friday.

Pakistan and Iran have had a history of rocky relations despite a number of commercial pacts. In 2004, both countries signed the $7 billion Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project agreement but 20 years on, the project remains incomplete.

Tehran has completed the gas pipeline’s construction on its side of the border while Pakistan is seeking a United States (US) waiver to go ahead with it due to international sanctions targeting Iran.

In his address with the ECO meeting in Mashhad, Dar would highlight the potential of greater connectivity in the ECO region, according to Foreign Office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch.

“Deputy PM will reiterate Pakistan’s commitment to the ECO charter and highlight the potential of greater connectivity in the ECO region to development of road and rail networks, liberalization of visa regimes, simplification of border procedures and to maintain sustainable growth and enhance geo-economic potential of the ECO region,” Baloch said at a weekly press briefing in Islamabad.

“Deputy PM will sign the charter for ECO clean energy center and hold bilateral meetings with participating ministers and other dignitaries on the sidelines.”

Dar would also reiterate Pakistan’s concerns over hostilities in the Middle East endangering peace and security.

The development comes weeks after Iranian FM Seyed Abbas Araghchi’s two-day visit to Islamabad to hold consultations with the Pakistani leadership on the Middle East situation following Israel’s invasion of Gaza and Lebanon, and to discuss bilateral ties with Pakistan.

Despite several agreements between them, Pakistan and Iran have often been at odds over instability along their shared, porous border and routinely trade blame for not rooting out militancy. Tensions surged in January when Pakistan and Iran exchanged airstrikes, both claiming to target alleged militant hideouts in each other’s territory. Late Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi had later traveled to Pakistan on a three-day visit in April to ease tensions and strengthen bilateral relations. The two sides had also signed memorandums of understanding in the fields of trade, science technology, agriculture, health, culture, and judicial matters.