Saudi Arabia commits $3 billion in financial support for Pakistan

(SeaPRwire) –   The financial support arrives as Pakistan is under pressure to repay a $3.5 billion debt to the UAE

According to Pakistan’s finance minister, Saudi Arabia has pledged $3 billion in financial assistance to the South Asian nation.

On Tuesday, Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb stated that Saudi Arabia has committed to providing $3 billion in additional deposits, which are anticipated to be disbursed within the next week. Aurangzeb is presently in Washington, D.C., for the World Bank-IMF Spring Meetings of 2026.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is scheduled to travel to Saudi Arabia on Wednesday for an official visit.

This aid from Riyadh coincides with Islamabad’s preparations to repay $3.5 billion to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) this month.

A report earlier this month in the Dawn newspaper stated that Abu Dhabi was demanding the prompt repayment of a loan originally granted to Islamabad in 2019 as part of the UAE’s external financing support.

This assistance, provided via the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development, was intended to help Pakistan manage a balance of payments crisis.

The report noted that the UAE debt had been rolled over on several occasions, but the most recent extensions were for shorter periods, suggesting growing discomfort with the arrangement from the Emirates.

In 2024, Pakistan encountered a debt crisis following COVID-19 lockdowns, supply chain disruptions caused by the conflict in Ukraine, and severe floods that impacted one-third of the country. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) intervened at that time with a three-year, $7 billion assistance package.

As part of its agreement with the IMF, Pakistan must obtain approximately $12.5 billion in rollovers from China, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE to fulfill its external financing requirements and sustain its foreign currency reserves.

The Dawn report also suggested that Qatar would take the UAE’s place in this arrangement.

Relations between Pakistan and the UAE have deteriorated over the past year. While Islamabad has entered into a mutual defense pact with Riyadh, Abu Dhabi has been working to forge a stronger security partnership with New Delhi.

The UAE, a crucial source of foreign remittances for Pakistan, also introduced visa restrictions impacting Pakistani nationals earlier this year.