ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi welcomed Kuwait's relaxation of travel restrictions for Pakistanis during a meeting with his Kuwaiti counterpart on Saturday.
Kuwait suspended visas for nationals of Iran, Iraq, Syria, Pakistan and Afghanistan in 2011 over what it said were difficult security conditions in the five countries. Last month, Pakistani Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed announced, after meeting the Kuwaiti prime minister, that business and family visas for Pakistani nationals would be “immediately” resumed.
Qureshi met Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Ahmad Nasser Al-Mohammad Al-Sabah on the sidelines of the Antalya Diplomacy Forum in Turkey. The forum, attended by top political leaders, diplomats, opinion makers and academics, is being held from June 18-20 in an Antalya resort on the coast of the Mediterranean.
"Pakistan welcomes ease of visa restrictions for our nationals. Pakistan and Kuwait share excellent bilateral relations & we look forward to deepening cooperation at all levels through our ongoing leadership level exchanges," Qureshi said in a tweet.
Pakistan began visa resumption talks with Kuwait in 2020, after which 208 nurses, doctors and medical technicians traveled to Kuwait on Oct. 22, 2020, according to data from the Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis.
Three more groups have gone since. On Thursday a fifth batch of Pakistani medical professionals arrived in Kuwait, taking the total number of health care workers who have traveled to the state since October last year to 938.
