Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan has regretted not attending December 2019’s Kuala Lumpur Summit in Malaysia, saying there were misconceptions among some friendly countries of Pakistan, which led to him and his team opting out of the moot, Dawn reported Tuesday.

Addressing a joint press conference following talks with Malaysian Prime Minister (PM) Mahathir Mohamad in Putrajaya, the premier said he wanted to share how sad he was for not attending the conference in Kuala Lumpur in the middle of December.

“Unfortunately, our friends, who are very close to Pakistan as well, felt that somehow the conference was going to divide the ummah. It was clearly a misconception because that was not the purpose of the conference as evident from when the conference took place.”

In December last year, Pakistan had pulled out of the Kuala Lumpur Summit of some 20 Muslim countries reportedly due to pressure exerted by Saudi Arabia. At the time, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi had confirmed that Riyadh and the UAE had concerns about the summit.