ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran would attend the ‘Middle East Green Initiative Summit’ in Riyadh being held on Oct 25.

Talking to Dawn, Special Representative of the Prime Minister on Middle East Tahir Ashrafi confirmed Mr Khan’s participation in the event, saying he had accepted Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman’s invitation.

The invitation was extended in July.

The prime minister is likely to travel to Saudi Arabia over the weekend. Besides attending the summit, Mr Khan is expected to hold bilateral meetings with the Saudi leadership.

In March this year, the Saudi leadership had launched the Saudi Green and Middle East Green schemes aimed at cutting carbon emissions by 60 per cent through employing clean hydrocarbon technologies and planting about 50 billion trees, including 10 billion in Saudi Arabia.

The Saudi Green initiative has more domestic focus while the Middle East Green initiative is meant to lead regional efforts for attaining global targets to combat climate change.

Pakistan was among the first countries to have welcomed the initiatives. PM Khan in a letter to the Saudi crown prince, on that occasion, offered Pakistan’s help in the massive tree plantation project.

The Prime Minister Office had on that occasion said the Saudi initiatives align closely with the prime minister’s own climate change initiatives — ‘Clean and Green Pakistan’ and ‘10 Billion Tree Tsunami’.

The Green Initiative website says: “The summit will convene international and regional leaders to motivate consensus to deliver against shared environmental commitments.”

Published in Dawn, October 19th, 2021