SHANA— Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said the Iranian government is ready to commit itself to provide safe and reliable energy, be it oil, gas or electricity.

Addressing reporters following a meeting with Pakistani Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and military chief Gen. Qamar Javed Bajawa on the second day of a three-day visit to Pakistan, Mr. Zarif said: "We believe that on the government side there are many projects that can help both countries. One is the energy sector; the Iranian government is ready to commit itself to provide safe and reliable energy, be it oil, gas or electricity to our brothers and sisters in Pakistan."

The official arrived in Pakistan on Sunday on a three-day visit for talks on regional issues.

Construction of the long-sought Iran-Pakistan gasline is one of the key topics considered by the Iranian delegation in Pakistan.

"We hope that the Iran-Pakistan pipeline which has been developing for the past many years and Iran has invested 2 billion dollars building the pipeline could as soon as possible, hopefully, become a reality," he said.

Zarif described political ties between Iran and Pakistan as excellent and added that "we are grateful to Pakistan for being with us in difficult times."

"We have committed ourselves to being with Pakistan during difficult times and this is the nature of our relationships," he added.

"Our economic ties have improved steadily in the past few years but we hope that we can further improve."

In 2017, trade ties between the two countries increased by 35% and "now we are seeing a 50% increase during the last 9 months and that is extremely pleasant for us to see such signs for better days to come."

He said: "We need to make sure that are two business communities get to know each other, get to work with one another and have the facilities to enable them to move further."

He also called for establishment of reliable financial channels by the two governments on interactions between the two countries.

"I'm very happy to see that the deputy governor of are Central Bank and the governor of Pakistan Central Bank will be meeting today [Monday] to further employment an agreement that they had reached some time ago in order to make sure that, you, in the private sector could engage in mutually beneficial relations without the hassle of going to difficult financial transactions and I believe that this is quite possible and can be done without further delay; I think that would be an important accomplishment if we can move in that direction."

He also said the preferential trade agreement between Iran and Pakistan could be implemented to the benefit of both private sectors in Iran and Pakistan and hopefully by implementing that preferential Trade System the two countries would move to a free trade agreement between the two countries, enabling the two sides to engage even in a greater manner and in an expanded manner in bilateral economic interactions.

Pakistan, an Emotion for Iran

He said Iran and Pakistan have made important achievements in the area of science and technology and therefore "we can compliment one another".

"I believe in many areas, Iran and Pakistan lead in the Islamic world from nanotechnology to ICT to other areas, Iran and Pakistan working together could compliment each other both in research as well as in development of the new frontiers of science and move forward."

"I believe that there is no area where we need to compete; in every single area we can compliment each other particularly in the important area of connectivity. I believe Iran and Pakistan could join in order to make our region a safer and more prosperous region."

He also noted that "We are here to tell you that there is no competition between Chabahar and Guader. We want Pakistan to be fully engaged in Chabahar and we promise you we promise all our friends in Pakistan that our relations with any country will never will never par our strong and fraternal relations with Pakistan. For us, Pakistan is more than a neighbor. Pakistan is a feeling it is an emotion and we will always encourage that feeling and emotion."