Pakistan, Singapore discuss resumption of direct flights as leaders mark 60 years of ties
Ishaq Dar and Singapore's Vivian Balakrishnan discussed bringing back direct flights at a joint press conference in Islamabad, as Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif met the visiting minister and the two countries exchanged a disaster-management agreement.
Pakistan and Singapore have discussed bringing back direct flights between the two countries, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said on Friday, as a landmark visit by Singapore's foreign minister moved from ceremony to concrete outcomes.
Dar raised the idea at a joint press conference in Islamabad alongside Singapore's Foreign Minister, Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, saying the two sides had discussed the possible resumption of direct flights "to facilitate business travel and close contact between our peoples". No airline, route or start date was announced, and officials described the discussion as a possibility under consideration rather than a done deal.
The flights discussion was one of several outcomes from a day of meetings marking 60 years of diplomatic relations between Pakistan and Singapore. Balakrishnan's trip is the first visit to Pakistan by a Singaporean foreign minister in nearly two decades, a gap both sides have repeatedly noted as a reason the visit carried unusual weight.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also met Balakrishnan at the Prime Minister's House on Friday. According to the Prime Minister's Office, Shehbaz expressed admiration for Singapore's "remarkable economic transformation" and its achievements in innovation and development, and reaffirmed Pakistan's commitment to strengthening what he called a longstanding and friendly relationship.
Trade and investment dominated the substance of the talks. The Prime Minister's Office said Shehbaz and Balakrishnan discussed expanding cooperation in priority areas including the digital economy, financial technology, infrastructure development, logistics, small and medium enterprises and the services sector, with both governments saying there is room for the economic relationship to grow well beyond its current level.
Balakrishnan, in turn, used the joint press conference to praise Pakistan's diplomacy in a tense region. He commended what he called the "incredibly valuable role" Pakistan is playing amid Gulf tensions, at a time when Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkiye have been involved in diplomatic efforts aimed at preventing a wider regional war.
A formal agreement was also exchanged during the visit. Pakistan's National Disaster Management Authority and the Singapore Civil Defence Force signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in disaster management, linking Pakistan's disaster-response system with one of Asia's most experienced civil defence organisations — a relevant connection for a country repeatedly hit by floods and heatwaves.
People-to-people links featured heavily in Dar's remarks. He said the two sides had agreed to encourage greater cultural, academic, youth and people-to-people exchanges, and to strengthen institutional links between their universities and research institutions, including cooperation in education, research, digital technologies and artificial intelligence.
Dar also pointed to the reopening of Pakistan's Trade and Investment Office at the Pakistan High Commission in Singapore as evidence of Islamabad's commitment to business-to-business ties, and noted that Pakistan was one of the first countries to recognise Singapore after its independence in 1965.
What happens next will depend on follow-through. Balakrishnan welcomed Shehbaz's acceptance of Singapore's invitation to visit, and both sides said they looked forward to carrying forward the understanding reached in Islamabad. Whether direct flights return, and on which routes, will only become clear when airlines and aviation authorities turn Friday's discussion into a schedule — but the fact that it was raised at foreign-minister level, in the anniversary year of ties, gives the idea political backing it has not had for years.
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