TEHRAN - The Iranian and Pakistani foreign ministers signed a five-year strategic plan for commercial cooperation in Islamabad on Thursday.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian, who started a tour of Pakistan late on Wednesday, also exchanged views with his Pakistani counterpart Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on a range of issues, including border security and exchange of prisoners.

Amir Abdollahian emphasized that the agreements reached between the two neighboring countries to strengthen border security will provide a suitable ground for developing relations.

He further noted that the meeting is aimed at facilitating the implementation of 190 documents already signed between Iran and Pakistan and reaching a sustainable and long-term cooperation deal, Press TV reported.

Bhutto Zardari also called for formation of a strategic committee to follow up on agreements to expand cooperation, including those in the defense and commercial areas.

He also welcomed the opening of border markets and hailed the trip by Amir Abdollahian as “very beneficial.”

Iran urges Pakistan to complete its part of gas pipeline project

According to mymotherlode.com, Iran’s foreign minister also on Thursday urged Pakistan to complete its part of a much-delayed gas pipeline between the two countries, a multi-billion project that has been on hold since 2014.

“We do believe that the completion of the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline is definitely going to serve the national interests of our two countries,” Amir Abdollahian told a joint press conference with Foreign Minister Bhutto Zardari.

The project, launched in 2013, required Pakistan to finish the construction of the pipeline on its territory by the end of 2014. Iran says it has already invested $2 billion on the pipeline project on its side of the border.

Elsewhere in his remarks at the press conference, Iran’s chief diplomat called for halting weapons supplies to Ukraine by the West.

“We have said this and we believe war is not the way, it is not the solution,” he said. “We believe that it is a source of great concern that the United States and some Western countries keep arming Ukraine.”

Pakistan has also called for resolving the Ukraine issue through dialogue.