President Zardari arrives in Kyrgyzstan for 4-day official visit

President Asif Ali Zardari arrived in Kyrgyzstan on Monday for a four-day official visit at the invitation of Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov.

According to a statement by the president’s office, he was welcomed by the Kyrgyz president upon his arrival at Issyk-Kul International Airport, and was presented with a guard of honour.

The Foreign Office (FO) said in an earlier statement that the president would be accompanied by a high-level delegation.

“This is the first visit by a president of Pakistan to the Kyrgyz Republic in 21 years, marking a historic milestone in the bilateral relationship,” the FO highlighted.

It noted that the trip followed Zhaparov’s “successful visit” to Pakistan in December 2025 and reflected the “sustained upward trajectory of high-level engagement between the two brotherly countries”.

During the visit, President Zardari will hold a one-on-one meeting and delegation-level talks with Zhaparov.

“The two leaders will review the entire spectrum of Pakistan-Kyrgyzstan relations and exchange views on regional and international developments of mutual interest,” the FO said.

It added that discussions were expected to focus on deepening cooperation across trade and investment, energy, mining, agriculture, textiles, the halal industry, healthcare and pharmaceuticals, the digital economy, education, tourism, and people-to-people exchanges.

During his trip, President Zardari will also receive Kyrgyz parliament speaker Marlen Mamataliev for a courtesy call.

The FO emphasised that Pakistan and Kyrgyzstan enjoy “warm and fraternal relations, anchored in shared history, faith, culture and common aspirations for peace, connectivity and prosperity in Central and South Asia”.

Alongside bilateral relations, Pakistan and Kyrgyzstan are both members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisa­tion (SCO), a 10-nation Eurasian security and political grouping whose other members include China, Russia, India, and Iran.

The two countries — along with Tajikistan and Afghanistan — had also been pursuing the $1.2 billion Central Asia-South Asia Electricity Transmission and Trade Project (CASA-1000), which was expected to become operational by January 2027 as per a Tajik minister.

Zhaparov has said CASA-1000 would “serve as a cornerstone in establishing a unified energy system between Central and South Asia”.

When Zhaparov visited Islamabad for two days in December 2025, it was the first visit to Pakistan by a Kyrgyz president in 20 years.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had offered landlocked Kyrgyzstan access to regional and global markets through its ports of Karachi, Bin Qasim and Gwadar.

Islamabad and Bishkek had signed 15 memoranda of understanding (MoUs) in various fields, including commerce, energy and health, to boost bilateral cooperation.

In August last year, the two countries agreed to promote bilateral cooperation in cryptocurrency, blockchain technology and digital finance.

A month before that, they reaffirmed an agreement to increase bilateral trade to $100 million at a session of their intergovernmental commission.

Pakistan’s exports to Kyrgyzstan stood at $3.124m in the first 10 months of fiscal year 2025-26, with a decline of 7.44 per cent compared to the corresponding months the previous year.

Imports from Kyrgyzstan stood at $0.626m, up from $0.493m during the previous fiscal cycle. ...