ISLAMABAD: The arrangement to buy crude oil from Russia is a win win situation for Pakistan and Russia, said Russian Ambassador Danila Ganich.

“This trade agreement on oil was not possible unless it was advantageous for both countries,” said the ambassador at a reception hosted to celebrate 75 years of diplomatic relations between Russia and Pakistan.

Since the 1990s, the volume of trade between Pakistan and Russia has increased from under $100 million to $500 million, the ambassador said.

The significance of cordial relations between the two countries could not be overstated.

“We will move forward and I am betting on friendship between the two countries with regards to commonality of values, interest and similar approaches to international issues,” he said.

As Minister for Economic Affairs Division Ayaz Saddiq echoed the comments of Ambassador Ganich, Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed believed that Pakistan’s relations with Russia were the most important in the current times. There is no conflict of interest. There had been hesitations in the past, bureaucratic perhaps, geopolitical compulsions.

“That is no longer the case. This is the Asian century. Eurasia has to work together. We are particularly happy to get oil from Russia, and work on closer diplomatic and political relationship. We reject any new cold war and expansion of Nato. We feel, in the 21st century, peace, cooperation and connectivity is the need of the hour. We want to be on the side of connectivity and moving progress and building the Asian Century. Russia, China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Turkey would be partners in this goal for a better tomorrow,” Mr Sayed said.

He said Pakistan would be willing to join any arrangement which strengthened regional connectivity, peace and cooperation.

“The two countries have strong compatibility of interest on Afghanistan, for peace and stability, non-interference in Afghanistan and ensuring that Afghan soil is not used for terrorism against any country,” he said.

The reception brought together a select audience both local dignitaries and ambassadors such High Commissioner of Mauritius Rashidally Soobadar and Ambassador of Nepal Tapas Adhikari.

A special corner was dedicated to vintage photographs of former president Ayub Khan’s visit to the Soviet Union on April 5, 1965, ambassador of Pakistan to Soviet Union Mian Arshad Hussain presenting his credentials to chairman of the presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR Leonid Brezhnev, October 5, 1961, and an image of a reception at the Soviet embassy in Islamabad on the occasion of the 72nd anniversary of the Great October Revolution with then prime minister Benazir Bhutto, Soviet ambassador Victor Yakunin and president Ghulam Ishaq Khan on November 7, 1988.

Published in Dawn, April 28th, 2023