Pakistan should reject Western pressure, message of Russian leadership – Pakistan

Russia has asked officials in Islamabad to be as bold as New Delhi and resist Western pressure if it wants to expand economic ties with Moscow.

According to the report of Business Recorder, this clear message was conveyed by the visiting delegation to Russia during official meetings with Pakistani officials. However, Islamabad appeared reluctant to give any clear signal to Moscow due to fear of sanctions from the West.

According to sources, the Russian delegation under the leadership of Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk is an assessment mission that will present its report at the highest level in Moscow, after which both countries will move forward.

Sources say that the Pakistani delegation is going to visit Moscow at the end of this month under the leadership of Federal Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal, in which ways and means of increasing bilateral cooperation in various fields will be discussed.

Deputy Prime Minister of Russia met Shahbaz Sharif

Initially, it was proposed to send delegations of Ministers which included Planning Minister, Petroleum Minister, Dr. Mossadegh Masood Malik, Industry and Production Minister, Rana Tanveer Hussain, Commerce Minister Jam Kamal Khan and others. However, now the government has decided to send a delegation comprising Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal and senior officials.

Sources said that Russian Deputy Ministers with the rank of Federal Secretary in Pakistan met with Pakistani ministers and discussed ways to promote economic relations.

Another major obstacle to bilateral trade between Pakistan and Russia is non-availability of banking channels.

The two sides discussed how trade can be done by land route while Afghanistan and Iran are currently the only two trade routes.

Trade through Afghanistan seems impractical due to poor relations between Islamabad and Kabul, and the route to Iran is also difficult due to the current geopolitical situation.

Russia has proposed Pakistan to use local or third-party currencies (Chinese RMB or UAE dirham) for bilateral trade and Russian banking messaging system to avoid pressure from other countries.

These suggestions were given by Russian President Vladimir Putin to Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on the occasion of the SCO Summit in Astana in July this year.

An official statement issued by the Ministry of Commerce said that Federal Minister for Commerce Jam Kamal Khan and Federal Minister for Industry Production and National Food Security Rana Tanveer Hussain met Russian Deputy Minister of Agriculture Sergey Levin at the Ministry of Commerce.