Pakistan, Iran top leaders meet after 10 years, inaugurate border market

The top leaders of Pakistan and Iran have inaugurated the first border market as relations warm between the two countries, officials said.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi inaugurated on Thursday an electricity transmission line, which will provide some of Pakistan’s remote regions with Iranian electricity.

Located in the remote village of Pashin in Pakistan's southwestern Baluchistan province, the marketplace is the first of six to be constructed along the Pakistan-Iran border under a 2012 agreement signed by the two sides.

In a televised meeting, Sharif, sitting next to Raisi, assured him Pakistan would do its best to improve security along the Iranian border. He added that both sides agreed to enhance trade and economic ties, and extended an invitation to Raisi to visit the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.

Iran-Pakistani relations have been contentious because of cross-border attacks by Pakistani militants along their shared border.

Small separatist groups have been behind a long-running insurgency calling for Baluchistan’s independence from the central government in Islamabad.

This is the first visit of its kind since 2013, when the two nations signed an agreement allowing Pakistan to import Iranian gas despite American opposition. Tehran at the time said that “the West has no right to block the project.” The agreement could not be implemented because of US sanctions on Iran.

Pakistan has close ties with Sunni powerhouse Saudi Arabia, but has tried to maintain a relationship with the predominantly Shia Iran. Riyad and Tehran, long-time rivals, restored ties earlier this year in a Chinese-brokered agreement.