Egypt’s President Morsi to visit Pakistan on March 18

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi will visit Pakistan this week on a one-day state visit, Pakistan’s Foreign Office said Saturday. Morsi is due in the country Monday by invitation of President Asif Ali Zardari and will bring with him “a high-powered delegation”, according to a foreign office spokesman. “This visit is being seen as a watershed and a landmark in the traditional and friendly relations between the two large and important Muslim countries,” the spokesman said, adding Morsi was set to be the “the first civilian, democratically and freely elected” Egyptian leader to visit Pakistan. Morsi was expected to hold a one-on-one meeting with Zardari and sign a number of mutual agreements. The pair will “hold extensive discussions on all areas of bilateral relations including regional and international issues of mutual interest,” said the spokesman, without specifying what agreements would be signed. “President Morsi’s decision to choose Pakistan as the first South Asian country for a bilateral visit manifests Egypt’s desire to add a new chapter to its bilateral ties with Pakistan,” he added. The last Egyptian president to make a bilateral visit to Pakistan was the late Gamal Abdel Nasser in the 1960s.