NSA, army chief in Russia to boost security, military ties
islamabad/moscow — The national security advisers of Pakistan and Russia have met in Moscow and discussed the situation in South Asia and the main challenges and threats to global security, media reports said.
Russia-Pakistan ties have been improving steadily since the two signed a military cooperation agreement in 2014. The two countries also held joint military exercises in 2016 and last year, as Moscow and Islamabad made efforts to move past their bitter Cold War hostilities.
Pakistan’s National Security Adviser Lt-Gen. (retd) Nasser Khan Janjua visited Moscow this week and met Nikolai Patrushev, Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, The News reported. Janjua, who led a high-level inter-ministerial delegation, reaffirmed
Pakistan is a geostrategically important country and Russia is keen to expand its existing bilateral militaryto-military cooperation Colonel General Oleg Salyukov, Russian Army Commander-in-Chief
Pakistan’s desire to continue to work together with Russia for further improvement in relationship and to seek enduring peace and stability in the region, it said.
This is the first-time ever that inter-ministerial level delegations led by national security advisers of the two countries met each other, the Pakistani newspaper reported.
Meanwhile, Pakistan Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa has met Russian Army Commanderin-Chief Colonel General Oleg Salyukov and discussed security and defence-related issues.
Salyukov said Pakistan is a geostrategically important country and Russia is keen to expand its existing bilateral military-to-military cooperation, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a statement.
Bajwa said that Pakistan “reciprocates desire of enhanced bilateral military engagements” with Russia, the statement said.
Bajwa said that Russia has recently played a positive role to help resolve complex situations in the region. He also said that Pakistan will continue to play its part to keep conflicts away from the region and seek approaches which bring regional convergences into play rather that the divergences, the statement said.