Chief of Army Staff General Asim Munir has said that Pakistan valued its ties with Qatar and looked forward to boosting them further.

“Pakistan values its brotherly relations with Qatar and Pakistan Army also looks forward to enhanced defence and security cooperation with Qatar Armed Forces,” he said during a meeting with Chief of Staff of Qatar Armed Forces Lieutenant General (Pilot) Salem Hamad Eqail Al-Nabet who called on him at the GHQ, Rawalpindi.

In a statement, the Inter-Services Public Relations said that matters of mutual and professional interest and regional security situations were discussed during the meeting.

“The visiting dignitary appreciated Pakistan Army’s continuous efforts for peace and stability in the region and pledged to keep working for better relations between the two countries,” said the military’s media wing statement.

Special forces contingents from Qatar participated in the two-week multi-national special forces exercise ‘Eternal Brotherhood-II’ at Barotha, Punjab last month.

The exercise was aimed at further harnessing the historic military-to-military relations among the friendly countries, including nurturing of joint employment concept, while identifying areas of mutual interest for future military collaborations and benefitting from each other’s experience against terrorism.

Pakistan and Qatar have long bilateral ties.

Earlier this year, former prime minister Shehbaz Sharif met with Qatar Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani and appreciated the country’s “continued support” for Pakistan’s development initiatives.

He had visited Doha to attend the fifth United Nations Conference on Least Developed Countries.

The emir had welcomed PM Shehbaz to Qatar and expressed his “keen interest in enhancing economic ties between Qatar and Pakistan”. He reaffirmed Qatar’s commitment and continued support for Pakistan’s development agenda.