Pak-Russia coop likely to bring economic uplift in the entire region

To strengthen bilateral relations and development of mutual confidence between the Pakistan and Russia, a seminar on Prospects of Pak-Russia Bilateral Relations was organized in collaboration with Muslim Institute which was attended by people from different walks of life including representatives of international organizations, diplomatic missions, think tanks, media, parliamentarians, scholars and academicians from various disciplines.

Russian offers of investment in energy sector of Pakistan like conversion of Muzaffargarh power house to the coal fired station, work at Jamshoro Thermal Power plant, Thar Coal project and oil exploration should be availed and steps should be taken for their implementation.

For energy flow from energy surplus Central Asia to energy deficit South Asia, Pakistan should play a vital role and in this regard strong Pak-Russia cooperation can bring economic uplift in the entire region.

Russian cooperation for expansion of Pakistan Steel Mills, precious minerals and metal exploration, their subsequent mining, extraction, processing and refinement, as well as assistance in defence, metallurgical and telecommunication fields, supply of civil, aeronautical and helicopter engineering capacity to Pakistan and for other such projects should be sought.

Pakistani should focus on increasing exports of products like raw materials, finished and unfinished textile, leather products, agricultural produce as well as cheap skilled, unskilled and technical manpower to Russia.

Continuous exchange of delegations from official and private sector of both countries, responsible for preparation and implementation of relationship enhancement strategies should be ensured.

Cultural exchange programmes as well as exchange programs of students, academicians, professionals, experts and parliamentarians should be encouraged to increase people to people contact.

Pakistan-Russia inter-governmental commission on trade, economic, scientific and technical cooperation, Pakistan-Russia Business Forum and other like platforms should be encouraged to play effective role for practical effectiveness of bilateral ties.

Pakistan should adopt network diplomacy and deal with countries issue to issue in order to enlarge areas of cooperation and limit the areas of friction.

Regional cooperation should be enhanced in the areas of common interest.

Russia supports full membership of Pakistan in SCO, this organization should be used effectively to deal the common issues of the region like extremism, drug trafficking, money laundering, cross border organized crimes, security threats etc.

Pakistan and Russia should play constructive role in facilitating the peaceful and democratic settlement of Afghanistan situation which should be Afghan led and Afghan owned.

Media of both the countries should play constructive role for improvement in bilateral ties between Russia and Pakistan.

Former Secretary General Ministry of Foreign Affairs Pakistan Akram Zaki, First Secretary Embassy of Russian Federation in Islamabad Anton Chernov, defence analyst Air Marshal (Retd) Masood Akhtar, Chairman Muslim Institute Sahibzada Sultan Ahmad Ali, former ambassador of Pakistan to Russia Khalid Khattak and head of international relations department National Defence University (NDU) Dr Muhammad Khan, Ambassador (Retd) Aslam Rizvi, Principal & Dean NIPCONS, National University of Science & Technology Islamabad Major Gen (Retd) Shahid Ahmed Hashmat and Deputy Director Research ISSRA, NDU Dr Saifur Rehman also addressed the seminar.

However, the panellists recommended that Pak-Russia bilateral relations should not be at the cost of relations with other countries.