ISLAMABAD: At a high powered meeting between Russian delegations and officials from Pakistan, Russia has extended its hand to Pakistan and offered their aid in fulfilling Pakistan’s energy needs.
The offer was made during the first day of the eighth meeting of the Pakistani-Russian Inter-governmental Commission (IGC) on Trade, Economic, Scientific and Technical Cooperation taking place in Islamabad this week.
The meeting commenced in Islamabad on Wednesday wherein both sides reviewed the existing areas of cooperation and deliberated on new proposals for cooperation. According to sources, on the first day of the Pak-Russia IGC meeting, experts of both sides reviewed previous decisions which were made so far between the two countries and also deliberated on new proposals for further deepening the bilateral relations while areas of mutual cooperation like trade and investment; agriculture; energy; industry; education; science and technology; information and communication technologies; finance, customs and communication including roads, postal service and railways remained under discussion between the two countries.
During the first day of the technical session of the 8th Pak-Russia IGC, the Russian side was headed by Deputy Director of the Department of Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation, Israfil Ali-Zade while Secretary Ministry of Economic Affairs, Dr Kazim Niaz led the Pakistani side. A Russian delegation, comprising around eighty (80) members, is participating in the meeting, said sources.
Speaking at the opening session of the meeting, Secretary Ministry of Economic Affairs, Dr Kazim Niaz said that huge potential existed there to benefit from the comparative advantage between Pakistan and Russia. He said Pakistan got a big hit due to devastating floods and appreciated the support extended by the international community during such times of crisis.
Speaking on the occasion, Deputy Director of the Department of Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation, Israfil Ali-Zade said Russia valued its relations with Pakistan. He said in all sectors of economy, there was a good level of cooperation and Russia aimed to enhance it further. He said there was a great potential between both economies that needed to be explored more.
During the technical session, the Russian side offered to supply oil and gas to Pakistan at discounted rates and assured that Russia can fulfil Pakistan’s energy needs, said sources.
They added that the Pakistani side provided data pertaining to the country’s oil and gas demand while the Russian side offered prices and quantity of oil and gas and both sides agreed to devise a final working paper in this regard.
“The proposals coming out of these technical sessions would be incorporated into the main Protocol of the Commission, which would be discussed, conformed and signed during the plenary session on third day of the session”, said the sources
Sources also said that the Wednesday IGC meeting also discussed payments and shipping modes and mechanisms while technical information of both sides on oil and gas will be the part of agenda of Thursday’s scheduled meeting of the IGC. They said ministerial level talks between Pakistan and Russia will be held on Thursday and a major breakthrough on oil, gas supply from Russia and long-term LNG agreement and construction of North-South Gasline project is expected to be achieved during this meeting. They said Pakistani Ministers including Ayaz Sadiq and Musadik Malik will represent the Pakistani side while Russian Energy Minister Nikolay Shulginov will represent the Russian side in the ministerial level talks between the two countries. During Thursday’s ministerial level talks, import of Russian crude oil, petrol and high-speed diesel (HSD) will also be the part of agenda, said sources.
It is also learnt from sources that both sides on Wednesday exchanged facts and figures pertaining to different sectors wherein mutual cooperation can be beneficial for each other while prices of oil and gas import from Russia also remained under discussion. Similarly, preparation of a roadmap for import of oil and gas from Russia on a short-term and long-term basis was also discussed in the meeting, said sources.
As per sources, on second of 8th IGC, the two sides are scheduled to hold technical consultations on finalizing the ‘Draft Protocol’ of the ongoing 8th IGC while on Friday, there would be main discussion on the implementation of the gas pipeline construction project titled “the Pakistan Stream Gas Pipeline (PSGP),” oil and petroleum products delivery to Pakistan, Russian-Pakistani financial cooperation, implementation of the decisions and recommendations of the seventh meeting of the commission, besides cooperation in different sectors before signing of the final protocol of the 8th meeting of the commission.
It is pertinent to mention here that 8th IGC is expected to find ways and means to promote Pak- Russia cooperation in diverse fields like trade and investment, agriculture, energy, industry, education, science and technology, Information and communication technologies, roads, postal services and railways, finance and customs.
Pakistan should also have good relation with every country in the world like USA Russia both. This is successful foreign policy…
𝑰 𝒂𝒅𝒗𝒊𝒔𝒆 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒑𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒆 𝒅𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒐𝒘𝒏 𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒄𝒉 𝒃𝒆𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒊𝒏𝒗𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒊𝒏 𝒂𝒏𝒚 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒔𝒆 𝒐𝒏𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒆 𝒄𝒓𝒚𝒑𝒕𝒐 𝒄𝒖𝒓𝒓𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒚 𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒕𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒎𝒔. 𝑴𝒚 𝒃𝒐𝒚𝒇𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒏𝒅 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒓𝒐𝒅𝒖𝒄𝒆𝒅 𝒎𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒔𝒖𝒄𝒉 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒕𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒎 𝒄𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒅 𝒃𝒊𝒕𝒃𝒚𝒃𝒊𝒕 𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒉𝒆 𝒉𝒂𝒅 𝒊𝒏𝒗𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒅 $200,000 𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒄𝒉 𝒘𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒈𝒆𝒏𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒆 $400,000 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏 2 𝒘𝒆𝒆𝒌𝒔. 𝑨𝒇𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒎𝒖𝒄𝒉 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒗𝒊𝒏𝒄𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒉𝒊𝒎, 𝒊 𝒔𝒂𝒘 𝒊𝒕 𝒂𝒔 𝒂 𝒍𝒖𝒄𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝒐𝒑𝒑𝒐𝒓𝒕𝒖𝒏𝒊𝒕𝒚 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒔𝒐 𝒊 𝒋𝒖𝒎𝒑𝒆𝒅 𝒐𝒏 𝒊𝒕 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒊𝒏𝒗𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒎𝒚 $150,000 𝒕𝒐 𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒏 $300,000 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒂𝒎𝒆 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒐𝒅 𝒂𝒔 𝒎𝒚 𝒓𝒐𝒊. 𝑰 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒏𝒐𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒓𝒆𝒅 𝒇𝒍𝒂𝒈𝒔 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒂𝒔𝒌𝒆𝒅 𝒎𝒚 𝒇𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒑𝒂𝒚 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒔𝒖𝒄𝒉 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒈𝒆𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒇𝒂𝒄𝒊𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉𝒅𝒓𝒂𝒘𝒂𝒍 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒄𝒆𝒔𝒔 𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒄𝒉 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒏𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒔𝒖𝒄𝒄𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒇𝒖𝒍. 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒂𝒎𝒆 𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒆𝒏𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒎𝒆 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒎𝒚 2 𝒘𝒆𝒆𝒌𝒔 𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒅𝒖𝒆, 𝒃𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆 𝒘𝒆 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒛𝒆𝒅 𝒊𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒂 𝒔𝒄𝒂𝒎, 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒉𝒂𝒅 𝒂𝒍𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒚 𝒓𝒐𝒃𝒃𝒆𝒅 𝒖𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒂 𝒕𝒐𝒕𝒂𝒍 𝒐𝒇 $650,000. 𝑾𝒆 𝒐𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒉𝒊𝒓𝒆 𝒂 𝒉𝒂𝒄𝒌𝒆𝒓 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒇𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒅 𝒎𝒊𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒆𝒍 𝒎𝒖𝒓𝒑𝒉𝒚 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒕𝒐𝒐𝒌 𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒄𝒂𝒔𝒆, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒊𝒏 72𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒔, 𝒉𝒆 𝒉𝒂𝒅 𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒌𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒄𝒂𝒎𝒎𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒓𝒆𝒇𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒅 𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒎𝒐𝒏𝒆𝒚. 𝑪𝒐𝒏𝒕𝒂𝒄𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒎 𝒐𝒏 𝒎𝒊𝒄𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒍𝒎𝒖𝒓𝒑𝒉𝒚@𝒓𝒆𝒑𝒂𝒊𝒓𝒎𝒂𝒏.𝒄𝒐𝒎.