Saudi investors are weighing up a deal to create a 140-acre industrial park in Pakistan’s port city of Karachi, in a further sign of warming ties between the two countries. The proposed joint venture will focus on attracting maritime businesses, using land belonging to the Karachi Port Trust.

Pakistan wants to establish itself as a hub for trade between China and the Gulf, and in recent times has been moving particularly close to Saudi Arabia, not least through a bilateral defense pact signed last year — something that has strained Islamabad’s relations with the UAE and added to the complexity of mediating between the US and Iran to end their war. The conflict, though, has sharpened Saudi Arabia’s logistics sector, with the country’s Red Sea ports seeing a surge in business to service neighboring countries cut off from their usual trade routes due to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.