Pakistan and Russia have gradually built “strategic trust” and have developed institutional mechanisms to enhance their bilateral coordination and cooperation, said Shafqat Ali Khan, Pakistan’s Ambassador to the Russian Federation, reported Dawn.
 
“The two countries in the past two decades have sincerely pursued development of friendly cooperative relations and today these relations are marked by deepening trust and expanding win-win cooperation,” he said. He also lauded the “development of strategic trust” as a huge success.

The envoy was speaking at a seminar on “Russia-Pakistan Cooperation: Regional Interests and Global Context”.

The bilateral trade, he claimed, had last year touched an all-time high of $730 million. The two nations had put in place “a solid architecture” for consultation and coordination on a wide range of issues, including strategic stability, counter-terrorism, and economic and trade relations.

The North-South gas pipeline, recently renamed as Pakistan Stream, would soon become a flagship project for Pakistan-Russia economic relations, he said. Russia has also shown interest in the revival of steel mills and the improvement of railways in Pakistan, he added.

The Pak-Russia Intergovernmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific and Technical Cooperation is likely to meet this year to take up various proposals for the promotion of economic relations.