ISLAMABAD: Saudi Arabia on Friday invited Prime Minister Imran Khan to the ‘Middle East Green Initiative Summit’ being held in October.

Saudi Ambassador Nawaf bin Saeed Ahmad Al-Malkiy delivered the invitation to Prime Minister Khan at his office.

The PM Office, in a statement, said Mr Khan accepted the invitation for participating in the summit.

Earlier in March, the Saudi leadership 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 the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

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

Pakistan was among the first countries to welcome the initiatives. PM Khan in a letter to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, on that occasion, had offered Pakistan’s help in the massive tree plantation projects.

Read: PM Imran praises 'brother' Saudi crown prince's plantation drives, offers Pakistan's support

The PMO said the Saudi initiatives aligned closely with the prime minister’s climate change initiatives — ‘Clean and Green Pakistan’ and ‘10 Billion Tree Tsunami’.

“Pakistan and Saudi Arabia are also collaborating closely to develop synergies in their climate-change related strategies,” it further said.

Published in Dawn, July 31st, 2021