MOSCOW: Prime Minister Imran Khan Thursday held a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss wide-ranging matters.
The president and the prime minister’s meeting lasted for more than three hours, during which they discussed Islamophobia, Afghanistan, bilateral, regional, and South Asian issues, among other “important matters”, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
The joint statement of the meeting will be released shortly.
PM Imran Khan arrived in Moscow on a two-day official visit yesterday, where he was received at the airport by Russia’s deputy foreign minister and presented with a guard of honour at the airport.
PM Imran Khan also had to discuss economic cooperation between the two countries, hours after a number of Western nations hit Russia with new sanctions for its military deployment into parts of eastern Ukraine.
The premier was set to push for the construction of a long-delayed, multi-billion-dollar gas pipeline to be built in collaboration with Russian companies, an official told Reuters.
The 1,100 km (683 miles)-long pipeline, also known as the North-South gas pipeline, was initially agreed to in 2015 and was to be financed by both Moscow and Islamabad, using a Russian company to construct it.
After the meeting with President Putin, PM Imran Khan met Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak.
In an interview ahead of his trip, PM Imran Khan had expressed concern about the situation in Ukraine and the possibility of new sanctions and their effect on Islamabad’s budding cooperation with Moscow.
It is unclear how the latest sanctions will affect the project, which would deliver imported Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) from Karachi on the Arabian Sea coast to power plants in Punjab.
‘Pakistan to keep balanced, sovereign foreign policy’
Speaking to a Pakistani media outlet, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry said Islamabad did not want a halt in its bilateral relations with Russia and wanted to bolster them.
“The prime minister and the Russian president discussed global issues,” Chaudhry said, noting that Pakistan will be keeping a balanced and sovereign foreign policy.
“We have close ties with Russia and the United States of America […] we will not be dictated into severing ties with any nation,” the information minister said.
The information minister said Pakistan would keep its interest at the forefront. He added that PM Imran Khan’s next tour would be to Europe.
Read more: US asks PM Imran Khan to play his part in averting Russia-Ukraine escalating conflict
