TEHRAN- Iran’s foreign minister has praised Pakistan for the outcomes of his visit, noting that the two countries had agreed on a five-year strategic plan to boost commercial cooperation.

Hossein Amir Abdollahian provided a report on his trip to Islamabad and Karachi as well as his discussions with senior Pakistani officials in a post on his Instagram account on Friday night.

“This trip was made with the aim of speeding up the process of implementing past agreements, focusing on economic and trade cooperation, planning for future developments, following up on cooperation agreements and discussing the joint political and security concerns of both countries within the framework of the policy of expanding the neighborliness policy,” he stressed. 

Amir Abdollahian went on to add, “Although the volume of bilateral trade has grown well over the past 20 months, it is not satisfactory, and our next step is to increase it to five billion euros.” 

“Therefore, to increase and expand cooperation, at the end of the meeting between the high-ranking economic delegations of Iran and Pakistan, presided over by Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Economic Diplomacy Mr. Safari, we signed the document of the five-year strategic plan for trade cooperation between Iran and Pakistan together with the Pakistani foreign minister,” he stated. 

“I also had a valuable meeting with Mr. Shahbaz Sharif, Pakistan’s Prime Minister. In that meeting, while receiving an official invitation for President Raisi from the Pakistani government, we discussed the meetings between the official delegations of the two countries over political, economic, trade, tourism and border issues,” Foreign Minister Amir Abdollahian remarked. 

Amir Abdollahian and his Pakistani counterpart Bilawal Bhutto Zardari assessed the outcomes of the Iranian delegation’s three-day tour to Pakistan on Friday evening.

During his tenure as Pakistan’s top diplomat, Bhutto Zardari said that the visit was the most successful one by a foreign minister.

He stated that the foundation has been created for the strengthening of relations between Islamabad and Tehran.

For a three-day official visit, Amir Abdollahian landed in Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, on Wednesday evening.

Amir Abdollahian arrived in Karachi on Friday and held talked with local officials and businesspersons, as well as Iranians residing there, and also to participate in Friday prayers. Afterwards, he left Karachi for Tehran. 

The Iranian foreign minister proposed a variety of ideas to improve economic and commercial relations with Pakistan.

Amir Abdollahian held talks with Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif in Islamabad on Thursday. Iran’s chief diplomat provided the Pakistani premier with information on the discussions between delegates from the two states on political, economic, trade, security, and border issues during the gathering.

Pointing to the agreements about banking activities, barter system and gas transfer pipelines, Amir Abdollahian reaffirmed Iran’s determination to carry out the bilateral deals with Pakistan.

Prime Minister Sharif, for his part, praised the Iranian delegation’s “timely” visit to Pakistan.

Additionally, he extended an invitation to the President of Iran, Ebrahim Raisi, to visit Pakistan in the hopes that he would be the first head of state to do so following the circumstances surrounding the upcoming elections in Pakistan.

The most recent events in Afghanistan were one of several regional and global topics that the two officials discussed.

During his official visit to Pakistan, Ami Abdollahian also met with Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, Speaker of the National Assembly of Pakistan, and Sadiq Sanjrani, Chairman of the Senate of Pakistan. 

During a meeting with Amir Abdollahian on Thursday night in Islamabad, General Asim Munir, Pakistan’s chief of army staff, also reaffirmed his nation’s commitment to working with Iran to combat terrorism.

The top Pakistani general stated that his country is totally serious about working with the amiable country, the Islamic Republic of Iran, in the battle against terrorism. 

According to the general, Pakistan is firm in its fight against terrorism and regards Iran’s security as being equal to its own.

He also praised the outcomes of his trip to Tehran in July and his meetings with important figures, such as President Raisi and Iranian Armed Forces Chief of Staff Major General Mohammad Hossein Baqeri.