Pakistani army chief visits Saudi Arabia to regenerate ties strained

Pakistan's army chief was visiting Saudi Arabia on Monday in order to ease a row between your two countries over policy towards the disputed region of Kashmir.

The argument, due to Pakistani demands for Saudi Arabia to have a firmer line against India's behavior in Kashmir, has threatened Riyadh's financial lifeline to Islamabad. General Qamar Javed Bajwa's visit was "primarily military-affairs oriented," the Pakistani army spokesman said.

But Pakistani military and government officials told Reuters Bajwa would make an effort to calm a predicament that if not reversed could badly hurt Pakistan's central bank foreign reserves. A normal ally, Saudi Arabia gave Pakistan a $3 billion loan and $3.2 billion oil credit facility to greatly help its balance of payments crisis in late 2018.

Irked by Islamabad's demands for Riyadh to convene a high-level meeting to highlight arch-rival India's alleged human rights violations in Kashmir, Saudi Arabia has forced Pakistan to repay $1 billion early and is demanding another $1 billion of the loan. Riyadh in addition has not taken care of immediately Pakistani requests to increase the oil facility, military and finance ministry officials have told Reuters. "I think our case is to convince them [Saudi] that there's no foreign policy shift," a senior Pakistani military official said. India and Pakistan have fought three wars over the divided Himalayan region of Kashmir, which both claim in full. The Saudi-led Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC) has only held low-level meetings over Kashmir despite Islamabad's demands.

Analysts say Saudi Arabia will not want risk its business interests in India for supporting Pakistan over Kashmir. Riyadh might also have reservations over its foe Iran's possible inclusion in the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), part of Beijing's Belt and Road Initiative, they said.

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said last week that if Saudi Arabia didn't convene a gathering on Kashmir, then Pakistan might call one involving Islamic countries that supported it on the problem. This past year Islamabad withdrew from a forum of Muslim nations at the last second on the insistence of Riyadh, which saw the gathering as an effort to challenge Saudi's OIC leadership.

Hafiz Tahir Ashrafi, an influential Pakistani cleric, who visited Riyadh prior to the general's visit, was optimistic, saying Saudi King Salman bib Abdul Aziz and Crown Price Mohammad bin Salman have an extended history of good relations with Pakistan. "I don't think things are so very bad that concerning say we are at daggers drawn," he told Reuters.