MOSCOW: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday was accorded a red carpet welcome upon his arrival to Russia on a two-day official visit.
Upon arrival at the airport, the prime minister and his delegation was warmly received by Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Morgulov and the high officials of Pakistan Embassy. He was also given a guard of honour.
The prime minister is undertaking the visit at the invitation of President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin.
The prime minister is accompanied by a high-level delegation, including federal ministers Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Chaudhry Fawad Hussain, Asad Umar and Hammad Azhar, Commerce Advisor Abdur Razzak Dawood, National Security Advisor Moeed Yusuf and Member of the National Assembly Amir Mahmood Kiani.
After a span of two decades, this is the first visit by a Pakistani prime minister to Russia.
PM Imran Khan to fly to Moscow to meet Putin this week
A bilateral summit will be the highlight of the visit. During the summit meeting, the two leaders will review the entire spectrum of bilateral relations including energy cooperation, according to the Foreign Office.
They will also have a wide-ranging exchange of views on major regional and international issues, including Islamophobia and the situation in Afghanistan.
The prime minister’s visit will contribute to the further deepening of the multifaceted Pakistan-Russia bilateral relationship and enhancement of mutual cooperation in diverse fields.
Pakistan-Russia relations have made impressive progress over the past two decades. There has been regular interaction between the two sides at the highest level, as well as, the working level.
Prime Minister Khan had spoken thrice to President Putin on August 25, 2021, September 14, 2021 and January 17, 2022.
He has also extended an invitation to President Putin to visit Pakistan.-APP
REUTERS ADDS: Prime Minister Imran Khan left for Moscow on Wednesday to push for the construction of a long-delayed, multi-billion-dollar gas pipeline to be built in collaboration with Russian companies, an official said.
Khan’s trip to meet President Vladimir Putin and discuss issues including economic cooperation comes hours after a number of Western nations hit Russia with new sanctions for its military deployment into parts of eastern Ukraine.
“Both countries are eager to launch the project at the earliest,” Pakistan’s energy ministry spokesman told Reuters about the Pakistan Stream gas pipeline. He confirmed that Energy Minister Hammad Azhar is accompanying Khan on the visit.
The 1,100 km (683 mile)-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.
In an interview ahead of his trip, 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.
PM’s Russia visit to be a ‘game changer’: Fawad
It is unclear how the latest sanctions will affect the project, which would deliver imported Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) from Karachi on the Arabian Sea coast to power plants in Punjab.
The project is important for Pakistan - particularly the power sector - as the country’s dependence on imported LNG grows in the face of dwindling indigenous gas supplies.
The pipeline project has already suffered delays because of earlier sanctions.
“This North-South pipeline suffered, one of the reasons...was the companies we were negotiating with, turned out that U.S. had applied sanctions on them,” Khan told Russia Today on Tuesday.
“So, the problem was to get a company that wasn’t sanctioned,” he said of the project.