Iranian President Makes Landmark Visit to Pakistan

Heading a high-ranking political and economic delegation, the Iranian president arrived in Islamabad on Monday morning at the official invitation of his Pakistani counterpart.

Raisi is going to hold meetings with senior Pakistani officials and sign a number of cooperation agreements during the visit.

He will later pay a visit to Sri Lanka.

In comments before leaving Tehran, the Iranian president hailed Pakistan as one of the important countries in South Asia with which Iran has long-standing historical and cultural relations.

“The political and economic relations, as well as regional and extra-regional cooperation have always been the focus of the two countries,” he said, highlighting the two neighbors’ common stances on human rights, defense of the oppressed people of Palestine, and the fight against terrorism.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran, in line with the neighborhood policy and the development of relations with Islamic countries, is interested in promoting relations with Pakistan and during this trip, various issues including economic and commercial issues, energy and border issues will be discussed with the government of Pakistan,” the president noted, his official website reported.

He also unveiled plans to achieve the target of $10 billion in trade and economic exchanges with Pakistan.

Raisi also noted that the development of economic and trade relations with Sri Lanka is one of the goals of his visit to the that country.

Referring to the significant growth in cooperation between the two countries in the technical and engineering fields, he expressed hope that the upcoming trip would be a turning point in improving the level of relations between Tehran and Colombo.