ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Friday insisted that Prime Minister Imran Khan’s visit to Moscow served the country’s foreign policy interests as he defended Mr Khan’s decision to undertake the trip amidst Russia-Ukraine crisis.

“The objective of the visit was to maximise diplomatic space for Pakistan and we believe our decision was right and that space has expanded,” the foreign minister said at a post-visit media briefing at the Foreign Office.

Mr Khan, on Thursday, became the first foreign leader to meet President Vladimi r Putin face to face hours after he ordered a military operation against Ukraine following weeks of escalating tensions. This led to a strong criticism of the timing of the trip at home. But Mr Qureshi rejected the criticism as misplaced and said the prime minister embarked upon the trip after assessing the situation and weighing the pros and cons. He said the outcome of the visit had proven the decision of going ahead with the trip right.

Says senior Biden administration official contacted government to share concerns over the trip

“There was a solid rationale of consolidating the bilateral ties and it was felt that this opportunity should not be lost,” he explained, adding: “We had the clarity before we left, we had the clarity when we arrived there, and we have clarity now that we did the right thing.” The foreign minister said Russia was an important country and intensifying engagement with it would be helpful in strengthening the new found geo-economic focus of the foreign policy.

Besides sharing the government’s diplomatic argument for not postponing the visit, he also took an indirect swipe at the domestic political opponents whom the ruling PTI accuses of corruption and parking their ill-gotten money abroad, saying Mr Khan was confident about his decision because he had no personal stakes in Western countries.

Mr Qureshi, moreover, disclosed that a senior official of the Biden administration had contacted the Pakistan government ahead of PM Khan’s Russia visit to share concerns over it. He said the message was “respectfully replied” conveying the “the visit’s background, and objective”.

The foreign minister did not say who from the Biden administration delivered the message. However, a diplomatic source separately said that it was conveyed by US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan to his Pakistani counterpart Moeed Yusuf.

US State Department spokesperson Ned Price had on Wednesday said the US position on Russia’s “renewed invasion of Ukraine” had been conveyed to Pakistan and that it was every responsible country’s responsibility “to voice concern, to voice objection” over Putin’s actions on Ukraine.

The Prime Minister Office had at the conclusion of Mr Khan’s trip said he had in his meeting with President Putin expressed regrets that that diplomacy did not work and the situation escalated into a military conflict. He had asked Mr Putin to resolve the dispute through “dialogue and diplomacy”.

Mr Qureshi said the visit was a bilateral one, but still the prime minister shared his perspective on the evolving crisis with his host. The bilateral agenda, he said, was dominated by energy projects.

Russia is particularly interested in the energy sector and is likely to invest in the construction of the 1100km-long Pakistan Stream Gas Pipeline that is planned for transporting gas from Karachi to Kasur. The two sides are currently negotiating shareholding and facilitation agreements of the project.

Mr Qureshi said most of the issues regarding the gas pipeline project had been settled. He said a couple of outstanding issues remained, which were discussed during prime minister’s meeting with Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak.

Another round of Pakistan-Russia talks is planned for next month. The foreign minister is hopeful that the deal for the pipeline construction would be concluded soon.

He said Russia was also interested in setting up a LNG terminal in Gwadar. “They expressed keen interest in the project and we welcome it,” he said.

The foreign minister said Mr Khan furthermore proposed a government-to-government gas purchase agreement to Russia and asked for extending gas pipeline from Uzbekistan to Pakistan via Afghanistan.

Responding to a question about Western sanctions against Russia, he said Pakistan was assessing the evolving situation and would decide according to its national interest.

Published in Dawn, February 26th, 2022