Pakistan priortises economic ties with Russia: PM

Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf Thursday said Russia was a source of peace and stability at both regional and global level and its growing power a positive development for the multi- polar world of today.

The Prime Minister said this while warmly welcoming a delegation of the Council of Federation of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation led by Ms. Valentina Matvienko, Chairperson of the Council at PM House.

Russian ambassador to Pakistan Andrey Bundnik accompanied the Chairperson. The Prime Minister said there has been a visible expansion in the bilateral relations as well as economic cooperation between the two countries and Pakistan greatly values Russia’s interest to invest in the energy sector of Pakistan. He said there was a vast potential for increasing the bilateral trade further. “There is a national consensus in Pakistan on building strong relationship with the Russian Federation and we attach great importance to our relations with Russia. Both the countries have initiated a process of building a broad-based long term partnership,” the Prime Minister said.

“We greatly value the support and assistance of Russian Federation in the war against terrorism,” said the Prime Minister. Ms. Valentina Matvienko thanked the Prime Minister for meeting the delegation and said Pakistan was an important partner of Russia and plays an important role in international relations. She said the exchange of visits of the parliamentary delegations of both the countries will help in further strengthening the bilateral relations. She said that some 2000 Pakistani students have graduated from Russian universities and Russia would welcome more students from Pakistan.

The Prime Minister said parliaments of both the countries could certainly play an important role in strengthening the relationship between the two countries.