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Pakistan's Foreign Minister Rushes To China For Support After Being Snubbed By Saudi Crown Prince
Swarajya Staff
Aug 21, 2020, 01:38 PM | Updated 01:38 PM IST
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Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has rushed for a visit to China for support after Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa was snubbed by the Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman.
As per a Times of India report, Qureshi has now gone to China to meet his counterpart Wang Yi to seek the support which Pakistan had hoped it will get from Saudi Arabia.
"I am leaving on a very important visit to China. My delegation will represent the stance of the political and military leadership of the country. I hope that my meeting with foreign minister Wang Yi will prove to be beneficial for both countries", Qureshi was quoted as saying.
The thorn in Pakistan's relationship with Saudi Arabia has emanated out of the former's efforts to make Turkey a rival leader to Saudi Arabia in the Islamic world.
This group with Turkey as its leader and member nations like Iran, Malaysia and Qatar seeks to become an alternative to the current Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).
Qureshi had recently threatened that if the OIC headed by Saudi Arabia did not convene a foreign ministers' meeting on Kashmir, Prime Minister Imran Khan would hold it on his own with his allies among the Islamic nations.
This irked Saudi Arabia, which has already been upset with Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's threat to replace it as the leader of the Sunni Muslim world.
As a result of Pakistan's posturing, it received a cold welcome in Saudi Arabia when General Bajwa had to be content with meeting the deputy minister for defence.
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