Pakistan will send troops to help with security at the World Cup in Qatar later this year, officials in Islamabad said Tuesday, as Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif arrived in Doha for an official visit.
A formal agreement is likely to be signed during the two-day trip, an official at the Foreign Ministry said.
Sharif’s Cabinet on Monday approved the draft of an agreement to allow the deployment of the country’s troops to the world's biggest sporting event, Pakistan’s Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb said.
The draft said troops would perform security duties during the event from Nov. 20, without specifying the number and the nature of the assignments.
The Pakistani military has a history of deploying in wealthy Arab states including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Qatar.
The army of the South Asian Muslim-majority nation has two decades of counterterrorism experience after the country fought against terrorists and separatists.
Turkey, a fellow Muslim-majority nation, and NATO have already announced they would send troops to Qatar.
