News
Thursday, February 09, 2012
Pakistan, Russia pledge broad-based partnership* Both countries agree to promote cooperation in trade, energy, agriculture
MOSCOW: Pakistan and Russia on Wednesday agreed to promote and enhance the bilateral relations in diverse fields, including trade, energy and people-to-people contacts.
Addressing a joint press conference along with her Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar said there had been scope for cooperation between the two countries in different areas and all the aspects for improving cooperation had been discussed during their meeting.
Khar is visiting the Russian Federation at the invitation of her Russian counterpart Sergey Viktorovich Lavrov. She held in-depth talks with her Russian counterpart on expanding and diversifying Pakistan-Russia relations. The two foreign ministers exchanged views on regional and global issues of mutual interest besides increasing cooperation in energy, infrastructure development, agriculture, science and technology.
Replying to a question on Afghanistan, Khar said Pakistan had a clear policy that it would extend full help and cooperation to any Afghan-led, Afghan-owned and Afghan-driven peace initiative as it was the only long-lasting solution to the problem. She said Pakistan had repeatedly said that there should be political solution to the Afghan problem for durable pace in the region.
The Foreign Minister said TAPI and KASA 1,000 energy projects were also discussed during the meeting. She said Pakistan also got very encouraging response from Russia for more investment in the most important project of Pakistan Steel Mills.
She said they also agreed to enhance parliamentary interaction besides increasing cooperation at the level of foreign ministries of the two countries. Khan said it had also been agreed that there would be more interaction between the chambers of commerce and industries of the two countries to improve trade activities.
The foreign minister said Russian investors had also shown interest to invest in different energy projects, like Thar Coal. Regarding cooperation in energy sector, she said, “We are looking forward for the energy group to be meeting within the first half of this year.”
Talking about the regional level of cooperation, the foreign minister said Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) was an exceptionally important forum within the region to counter regional challenges.
She said Pakistan had been actively participating in the deliberations of the SCO and sought its permanent membership, and thanked the Russian Federation for extending its support on this issue. app
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk