Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari met UAE Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, on Wednesday to discuss strengthening bilateral ties, focusing on trade, investment and economic cooperation.
The meeting at Zabeel Palace covered avenues for collaboration in commerce, infrastructure, and long-term investment. Zardari congratulated Sheikh Mohammed on two decades of leadership and praised Dubai’s rise as a global hub for tourism, finance, and emerging technologies.
Both sides discussed drawing on Dubai’s development model, especially in ports, logistics, infrastructure, information technology and digital financial services.
The Pakistani president outlined his government’s ongoing economic reform agenda, including measures aimed at improving the investment climate and advancing privatization. He said Pakistan was keen to expand cooperation with the UAE in infrastructure development, logistics, food security and technology-driven sectors.
Zardari also extended an invitation to Sheikh Mohammed to visit Pakistan.
Both leaders reaffirmed their commitment to strengthening what they described as long-standing fraternal ties between Pakistan and the UAE, and expressed satisfaction with the upward trajectory of bilateral relations.
They underscored the importance of sustained high-level engagement, recalling the recent visit of UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan to Pakistan, and acknowledged the UAE’s continued support for Pakistan’s economic development.
The two sides also highlighted the role of the Pakistani expatriate community in the UAE, one of the largest overseas populations in the country, in reinforcing people-to-people links.
The meeting was attended by First Lady Aseefa Bhutto Zardari, Pakistan Peoples Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi and Pakistan’s ambassador to the UAE.
Zardari arrived in Abu Dhabi on Monday for a four-day official visit, which runs until Jan. 29. His trip includes meetings with senior UAE leadership to review bilateral relations and explore ways to deepen cooperation across trade, economic partnership, defense, security and people-to-people exchanges.
The UAE is among Pakistan’s key economic partners and a major source of foreign investment, remittances and employment for Pakistani nationals. The two countries have intensified diplomatic engagement in recent months, with leaders on both sides placing renewed emphasis on economic cooperation and regional coordination.
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