ISLAMABAD —
Pakistan has wrapped up a groundbreaking contract with Russia that would,for the first time, open doors for Russian military training of Pakistaniarmy officers, Voice of America has reported.
The rare deal comes amid deteriorating relations between Islamabad and theUnited States, which has resulted in the halt of all military exchangeprograms with Pakistan and left a void that Moscow has stepped in to fill.
The security training agreement concluded Tuesday at the end of the two-dayinaugural meeting of the Russia-Pakistan Joint Military ConsultativeCommittee (JMCC), said a Pakistan Defense Ministry statement.
Pakistani Defense Secretary Zamir ul Hassan Shah and visiting RussianDeputy Defense Minister Col. Gen. Alexander Fomin led their respectivedelegations at the talks in Rawalpindi, where the army is headquartered.
“The two sides also held in-depth discussions on avenues of futurecooperation. At the end, both countries signed the Contract on Admission ofService Members of Pakistan in the RF [Russian Federation’s] TrainingInstitutes,” said the ministry statement.
The Islamabad-Moscow security partnership has strengthened and expandedsince late 2014, when the two former rivals signed their defensecooperation agreement.[image: FILE – A Russian military MI-35M helicopter performs during an airshow in Zhukovsky, outside Moscow, Aug. 23, 2007. Russia has sold thecombat helicopters to Pakistan.]
Russia sold four Mi-35M combat helicopters to Pakistan under the deal, andboth countries have since held two rounds of counterterrorism militarydrills on each other’s soil.
Navies of the two countries also recently participated in joint antidrugexercises in the Arabian Sea. The latest naval collaboration took placelast week in St. Petersburg, where a Pakistani warship participated in themajor Russian Navy Day parade.
“It was a very important event for us. Actually, illustration of thisimportance is that this parade was taken by the commander-in-chief ofRussian armed forces, President Mr. Putin,” Russian ambassador to Pakistan,Alexey Dedov, said last week.
“This cooperation is developing into many directions. So, there is quite awide spectrum. And, of course, this is a reflection of our approach to therelations with Pakistan, which to our country has their own independentvalue for us.”