ISLAMABAD, JAN 31, (DNA) – President of the State of Palestine Mahmoud Abbas was presented with a guard of honour at the prime minister house in Islamabad on Tuesday. The Palestinian leader arrived in the capital on Monday night for a three-day official visit.

President Abbas is accompanied by a seventeen-member delegation including five ministers. It is his third visit to Pakistan as he had previously been to the country in 2005 and 2013.

During the visit the Palestinian President will have one-on-one meeting with Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif followed by delegation level talks, according to a press release of the Foreign Office on Sunday.

The President of Palestine and the Prime Minister of Pakistan will jointly inaugurate the newly constructed Palestine Embassy Complex in the Diplomatic Enclave.

The Government of Pakistan had gifted a plot of land in 1992 for the construction of the Palestinian Embassy Complex.

In 2013, Pakistan also contributed towards its construction.

President Mahmoud Abbas and his delegation will meet President of Pakistan Mamnoon Hussain followed by a state banquet in his honour.

Bilateral political matters as well as other issues of common interests will be discussed between the two heads of states.

The relations between Pakistan and Palestine have traditionally been strong.

Pakistan consistently supported the creation of an independent viable and contiguous Palestinian State with pre 1967 borders, with Al Quds Al Sharif as its capital.

Pakistan has also extended support to the Palestinian struggle for their independent homeland at all international forums.=DNA

================