ISLAMABAD – Pakistan and Russia decide to enhance defence and militaryties to new levels, sources have revealed.
Pakistan and Russia will expand military ties in the coming months as thetwo nuclear powers come closer, officials said on Friday.
Islamabad and Moscow had agreed to exchange high-level visits morefrequently to enhance the growing relationship.
“Defense is a main aspect of our (Pak-Russia) ties. The two sides haveagreed to multiply the cooperation,” one official said, citing the recentmeetings in Islamabad.
He said Russia was willing to take the relationship to a new level andforget the bitter past dating back to the cold war era. “Both the sideshave left the past behind, we are moving forward,” he added.
Another official said that Army Chief Qamar Javed Bajwa had played asignificant role in bring Pakistan and Russia closer. “The army chief haseven visited Russia and discussed the defence ties. We (Pakistan andRussia) are now exchanging visits and coming even closer,” he maintained.
The official said the army chief and the civilian leadership will discussthe ‘new defence relationship’ with their counterparts to finalize thefuture deals.
Recently, Pakistan and Russia had vowed to work together for peace inAfghanistan and supported each other’s ‘regional initiatives.’ During ameeting between Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Russian envoy onAfghanistan Ambassador Zamir Kabulov, the two countries agreed to continueregular consultations on the Afghan peace process and support regionalinitiatives.
In December, Pakistan had launched a campaign to win over the keyneighbours on the Afghanistan issue and regional peace. Foreign MinisterQureshi, accompanied by Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua and seniorofficials, had gone on a four-nation tour on December 24 as part of thegovernment’s policy of “outreach in the neighbourhood.” They visitedAfghanistan, Iran, China and Russia from December 24-26.
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Pakistan has always maintained that the solution to the conflict inAfghanistan lied in an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned peace process.International community’s recent consensus to adopt this as the guidingprinciple to resolve the 40-years old Afghan conflict, vindicatedPakistan’s long held view.
Last November, Russia had hosted talks on peace and Afghanistan Talibanwhich among Afghan leaders were also participated China, Iran and Pakistan.There were no significant breakthroughs during the Moscow meeting, whichwas attended by representatives of 11 countries. But delegates widelyacknowledged that the meeting itself was a feat.
This week, a meeting of the Pakistan-Russia Consultative Group on StrategicStability was held in Islamabad.
Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua and Sergey Ryabkov, Deputy ForeignMinister of the Russian Federation, led their respective delegations.
During the meeting, the two sides had an in-depth exchange of views onprevailing regional and global security environments and their impact onthe international arms control, disarmament and non-proliferation agenda,the foreign ministry said.
The two sides agreed on the need for preserving multilateralism in thefield of international security and disarmament and shared the concernregarding the possible erosion of painstakingly negotiated internationalarrangements in several areas, it added.
“The discussions encompassed issues such as non-militarization of outerspace, upholding bilateral and multilateral treaties, developments in thefield of information and telecommunications in the context of internationalsecurity as well as matters related to the International Atomic EnergyAgency, Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and theConference on Disarmament in Geneva,” the foreign ministry statement said.Pakistan-Russia Consultative Group on Strategic Stability is a platform forstructured dialogue between the two sides and has been meeting since 2003.
