Why did Saudi Arabia Demand Early Repayment of Loan from Pakistan?
Since the onset of the Corona epidemic, Prime Minister Imran Khan has been urging not only Pakistan but the world to forgive the debts of all developing countries or give them more time to repay their debts. The Paris Club, a group of Western countries, recently announced a further delay in the repayment of Pakistan's 1.7 billion debt. But while Pakistan got this relief on loan repayment, Saudi Arabia, a close ally and brotherly country of Pakistan, demanded early repayment of 3 billion dollars loan from Pakistan out of which Pakistan paid 2 billion dollars with the help of China. Payments have been made in two installments, with the remaining 1 billion dollars expected to be paid soon. The question now is whether Saudi Arabia's demand for loan repayment is an expression of resentment with Pakistan?Moeed Yousaf, Pakistan's national security adviser, says Pakistan-Saudi Arabia relations have changed, but not because of any one country, but because of the changing situation in the world.
"The US currency is depreciating, China is emerging, new centers of power are emerging in the world, many Muslim countries have recognized Israel, some change is expected with the arrival of a new government in the United States, while Iran's At the same time, tensions are rising, so in such a situation, it cannot be expected that Pakistan's relations will remain the same. ”Moeed Yousuf says it is not possible that Pakistan-Saudi Arabia relations, which have been in place for 70 years As it is, they will change and the balance of Pakistan-Saudi relations will look bad for the next few months.
Regarding Saudi Arabia's demand for early repayment of the loan, Moeed Yousaf said that Saudi Arabia is an independent country and they decided that if we want the money back from Pakistan at this time, then Pakistan will repay the loan at that time. The ups and downs of Pakistan-Saudi relations have been quite clear in the last two years. When Imran Khan took over the government in 2018, Saudi Arabia not only lent Pakistan 3 billion dollars but also promised to provide the same amount of borrowed oil to address Pakistan's economic situation and debt repayment difficulties.
When Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman visited Pakistan in 2019, the leaders of the two countries showed great enthusiasm and Muhammad bin Salman called himself the ambassador of Pakistan.But when India ended the special constitutional status of Kashmir under its administration, Pakistan did not get the expected support from Saudi Arabia, which was complained about by Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi in an interview to a TV channel.
Shah Mehmood Qureshi sharply criticized Saudi Arabia for not convening a meeting of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) on the Kashmir issue, after which Saudi Arabia demanded early repayment of the loan. However, some observers believe that one of the reasons for this is Pakistan's growing inclination towards Iran and Turkey.
National Security Adviser Moeed Yousaf said that there would be some ups and downs in Pakistan-Saudi relations.
"We will agree with them on some issues and not on others."
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