Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has categorically rejected that relations between Islamabad and Riyadh — traditionally two strong allies — are deteriorating.
The foreign minister was quoted by news website Geo News as saying: "Pakistan and Saudi Arabia's ties are and were always better. I think no one understands the depth of our relations with each other. We are each other's necessity and support".
The speculations of strained ties between the Islamic countries emerged after Qureshi threatened that he would call a meeting of the 57-member Council of Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on Kashmir on his own if Saudi Arabia didn't. The threat backfired when Riyadh demanded the repayment of $1 billion from the Imran Khan government, which was part of a $ 6.2 billion package announced in November 2018.
Saudi Arabia was the first one to extend a helping hand to Islamabad when Pakistan was debt-trapped in 2018. The relief package included $3 billion in loans and oil supply on deferred payments worth $3.2 billion. Besides this, Pakistan will no longer receive fresh loans or oil supply from Saudi Arabia.
Riyadh's action prompted Pakistani military chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa's visit to Saudi Arabia, where he was unable to meet Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. After Bajwa's visit, Qureshi said he is hoping for future meetings to be held with Saudi Arabia on important issues, and the "two countries fulfill the targets and expectations they had of each other".
Qureshi, who is on a two-day visit to China, has termed Kashmir an important issue even for Beijing. He said: "China had a standoff with India as well on Kashmir, which has not ended. Hence, Kashmir is important for both countries".
Despite several requests by Pakistan, Saudi Arabia has refused to see Kashmir as a Muslim issue and termed it a bilateral matter with India. Pakistan even tried to raise the matter at meeting of Muslim countries in Kuala Lumpur in 2019, but Saudi Arabia managed to keep Prime Minister Imran Khan away from the meeting.