Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Secretary General Nayef bin Falah Al-Hajraf, will arrive in Pakistan on Wednesday and is expected to meet Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue Shaukat Tarin and Prime Minister’s Advisor for Commerce and Investment Abdul Razak Dawood apart from attending to other commitments.
The GCC secretary general is coming to Pakistan to attend the 17th Extraordinary Session of the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers on the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan on December 19, 2021.
The visit offers the two sides an opportunity to review mutual cooperation and take steps to foster enhanced collaboration in diverse fields, with a renewed focus on trade and economic relations between Pakistan and the GCC member states.
It is pertinent to mention here that in April last year, after a gap of 13 years, Pakistan and the GCC resumed negotiations on a free trade agreement (FTA).
Talks on the FTA started in 2004, but after two rounds of talks in 2006 and 2008, only a broader outline was reached. The intention to resume the negotiations was declared during Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s visit to Islamabad in 2019, but they were further delayed by the coronavirus outbreak.
