Pakistan enjoys very warm brotherly relations with all Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) members, which are embedded in history and religion. The GCC region has remained the most important pillar of Pakistan’s foreign policy. Pakistan has an abiding interest in geopolitical, geostrategic, and geo-economic happenings and developments, both positive and negative, in the region. Additionally, Pakistan enjoys well-established trade, defense, and people-to-people ties with all regional countries.

Bahrain is one of the important countries in the GCC region. Pakistan and Bahrain have established a Joint Ministerial Commission (JMC) at the Foreign Ministers’ level to discuss comprehensive trade and economic ties, make agreed decisions, and supervise the implementation of these decisions. So far, five sessions of the JMC have been held, the last being in July 2021. In all fairness, Pakistan and GCC member countries represent not only continuity in their brotherly relations but also a strategically strengthening of an already time-tested relationship.

In this context, Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif’s recent two-day official visit to Bahrain has assumed special significance. Upon reaching Manama to a warm welcome, the PM’s meeting with King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa was meaningful and productive, as both........

© Daily Times