Pakistan’s Prime Minister, who is on a two-day visit to Kazakhstan’s capital Astana on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit, met Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday.

In this lively and pleasant meeting, it was agreed to strengthen relations between the two countries in various fields including trade and energy and to expand multilateral cooperation. Mian Shehbaz Sharif said that we want to increase oil supply from Russia, we have to improve business relations with Moscow in the future.  President Putin said that Pakistan and Russia have excellent relations, we can expand our cooperation in the fields of energy and agriculture, we will also expand cooperation with Pakistan in the field of food security.  The two leaders had extensive discussions focusing on trade and economic relations, energy sector and important international issues. 

The Prime Minister reiterated his commitment to work with Russia to further expand and strengthen the growing multilateral cooperation between the two countries in all areas of mutual benefit, including trade, energy, defense and security.  Shahbaz Sharif said that it was nice to meet you, Pakistan and Russia have been friendly countries for a long time, their positive relations will have to be strengthened in the future. We can benefit from your experiences and develop mutual trade which is currently around one billion dollars. He expressed his desire to promote trade with Russia under the barter system, which would be beneficial for Pakistan and through which many other problems of the country could be overcome.  Russian President Vladimir Putin said it was a pleasure to meet you again after the Samarkand meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization two years ago. Bilateral relations have further improved thanks to trade ties between the two countries. He indicated to increase cooperation in the fields of energy, agriculture, food security.  The meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Council has its own importance, but the contacts that took place on the sidelines between different countries on this occasion are also very useful. 

The Shahbaz-Putin meeting provided an opportunity to increase efforts to stabilize Pakistan-Russia relations and increase trade opportunities. The trilateral talks between Prime Minister of Pakistan Shehbaz Sharif, President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan and President of Azerbaijan Ilham Ali Youf, among other issues, highlighted the possibilities of establishing a tripartite institutional mechanism in the fields of trade and economic cooperation and investment. Earlier, from the Pakistan-Tajikistan joint statement issued at the end of Mian Shehbaz Sharif’s official visit to Dushanbe, where the need and benefits of a peaceful, prosperous and stable Afghanistan for regional development came to the fore, there were organized crimes of all kinds, including terrorism. The determination to cope was renewed. It should be expected that as a result of the meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the contacts of various leaders, global and regional peace will be strengthened and the way of prosperity will be paved in the region. During the visit of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on two Saturdays, the memorandums of understanding and agreements signed between Pakistan and Tajikistan have highlighted new aspects of mutual cooperation and understanding, while coordination on many international issues has also come to light.  From the meeting of the Prime Minister of Pakistan with Tajik President Imam Ali Rahmanov and the joint press conference, where the desire to increase cooperation in various fields is prominent, the coordination regarding international affairs is also evident. The documents signed by the two countries include memorandums of understanding and agreements on cooperation in aviation, diplomacy, education, sports, social relations, industrial cooperation, tourism and other fields.  A major development has come out that the passports of Pakistan and Tajikistan will be exempted from visa. A strategic partnership agreement was also signed under which the foreign relations of Pakistan and Tajikistan will be transformed into a long-term strategic partnership.

  This agreement will create new opportunities for cooperation between the two countries. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif informed the Tajik President about the worsening situation of human rights in Occupied Jammu and Kashmir, the despicable Indian efforts to change the demographic structure.  The two leaders expressed their concerns regarding the Israeli aggression and the worst violations of human rights in Gaza and agreed on the need to stop further loss of human life in Gaza and intensify the efforts of the international community to establish peace in the region.  During the joint press conference, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif expressed his desire to work together for the promotion of investment in various sectors and also drew attention to the fact that the volume of trade between Pakistan and Tajikistan is not a reflection of our close relations. He said that we have to set targets on an annual basis to increase the trade volume.  Addressing the Tajik President, he said that I am willing to work with you so that cooperation between Islamabad and Dushanbe in various fields including agriculture, industry, investment, and trade will increase. According to Mian Shahbaz Sharif, goods are being transported from Karachi port to Tajikistan through Afghanistan, he wants the road and rail network between Tajikistan and Pakistan to be strengthened.  He said that we should find multilateral corridors. We are keen to be part of the trade corridor between China, Tajikistan and Afghanistan. The chances of the Prime Minister’s desire to become a reality have been highlighted by the news of an agreement to lay a railway line between Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Uzbekistan in a four-nation conference on the occasion of the Doha Conference.  Positive results can certainly be achieved by establishing such new corridors of access to Central Asia. Tajik President Imam Ali Rahmonov said in his address that steps can be taken to increase trade and investment and increase the use of Pakistani ports in the coming days.  He also agreed to the proposal to establish a joint ministerial commission between the two countries. As evident from these details, measures to increase trade and investment between the two countries can be expected to be implemented soon.  The more commercial activities are promoted in the region, the more prosperity will come.