Important decisions are expected in the next 24 hours as Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif arrived in London on a private visit from Egypt, Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb said on Wednesday.
“After attending the COP 27 conference, Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif left for London on a private flight,” she said in a tweet.
وزیراعظم شہباز شریف کاپ 27 کانفرنس میں شرکت کے بعد نجی پرواز سے نجی دورے پر لندن روانہ
— Marriyum Aurangzeb (@Marriyum_A) November 8, 2022
PM Shehbaz at COP-27
Prime Minister Shebaz attended a two-day Climate Implementation Summit, COP-27, in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.
During the visit, the PM participated in several high-level events, held bilateral meetings with his counterparts, and also interacted with international media.
On Monday, Shehbaz held a joint press conference along with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. During the press conference, the UN Secretary-General proposed a debt swap — exchanging the payment of debt with investment in the rehabilitation of the flood-affected people of Pakistan.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said that Pakistan sustained losses of over $30 billion. He said that the damages suffered in floods were also combined with a surge in poverty rates, with over 9 million of our people being pushed into a life of extreme poverty, with an additional 1.9 million families being pushed into multidimensional poverty.
He said that the impact on the GDP would be 2.2 % just from the flooding but extreme climate events such as heatwaves, forest fires, and rapidly melting glaciers had already created a 9.1% drag on Pakistan’s GDP annually.
The PM on Tuesday underscored that vulnerable developing countries such as Pakistan were already witnessing unprecedented devastating impacts of climate change, even though they have contributed very little to it.
PM Shehbaz also met the Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman on Tuesday and expressed confidence that the Crown Prince’s upcoming visit to Pakistan would promote bilateral cooperation.
Saudi Crown Prince to visit Pakistan later this month
“Both sides expressed determination to further strengthen the multilateral partnership between the two brotherly countries,” a statement from the PM Office added. During the meeting, the two leaders also discussed regional and global issues of mutual interest.
PM Shehbaz confident of Saudi crown prince’s upcoming Pakistan visit will promote bilateral ties
