Immediately after independence, it was the Soviet Union that supported the Pakistani membership in the United Nations, but then the country became a close US ally in the ‘cold war’, says Russian Consul General in Karachi Andrey V Demidov, who is a PhD in Political Science, in an article published on bilateral relations and cooperation between Russia and Pakistan. History of bilateral relations between the Russian federation and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is not an easy one. Pakistan joined military blocks CENTO and SEATO that were openly anti-Soviet and finally it was from here that the US launched a spy-plane into Soviet airspace which was, however, shot down.
Demidov says that relations between Russia and Pakistan became especially uneasy in the 80s during the former’s military campaign in Afghanistan. “The more one analyses the issue of that campaign the clearer it becomes that the whole story was orchestrated not in Moscow and not in Islamabad but certain people in a certain country wanted to avenge for their defeat in Vietnam. “I want to stress that the Soviet Union never ever had plans to reach ‘warm waters’ of the Indian Ocean through Pakistan and the whole idea was a hostile propaganda.” He says that contrary to the difficult political climate of that time, the Soviet Union extended its friendly hand to Pakistan and assisted the latter in building the Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM), but on political grounds, Pakistan rejected the already agreed project of setting up an assembly plant for Russian small and cheap cars in Sindh.
“Our relations remained tense in the 90s as Pakistan supported the Taliban movement which was hostile to Russia and in favour of independence of Chechnya. The Taliban also threatened Russia with acts of terror.” He says that the strained relations eased after 2001 with the launch of the ‘War on Terror’ as Pakistan gave up the support for Taliban and then president Pervez Musharraf visited Moscow in 2003, where he stressed the importance of Russia for Pakistan. “Both sides then emphasised the importance of development of economic cooperation and trade. The fields of energy, steel production, telecommunications, space technologies, oil and gas were mentioned as leading areas of cooperation.
“At present, our bilateral political relations are excellent and the heads of states meet on regular basis. During 2011 only, presidents Dmitry Medvedev and Asif Zardari have met six times.” The consul general points out that it is important that not a single political problem between our two countries can divide us and we agree on numerous issues of world politics. Both states contribute seriously to worldwide struggle against terror and we appreciate the great sacrifices rendered by Pakistani people in this struggle.
“We interact politically in the UN and Shanghai Cooperation Organisation among other international bodies and I can foresee a positive political cooperation in settling conflicts in Afghanistan and Kashmir. “We were and are prepared to cooperate with Pakistan in different spheres, primarily in commerce and in economy. In the last two decades of the 20th century, the cooperation between our two countries remained at a very negligible level as bilateral trade volume in 1980s was $95 million and in 1990s $138 million.”
Demidov says that a record high volume of bilateral trade reached in 2008 at about US $600 million as Russia imported from Pakistan textiles, leather goods, sports equipment and pharmaceuticals while Pakistan brought in Russian steel, wheat, chemicals.
“But later we experienced the effects of the world financial crises and the volume of trade dropped to a level of US $300 million in 2009. We still plan to reach the level of US $700 million by the end of 2011.
“I have already mentioned a very good example of mutually beneficial cooperation – that is the PSM. The project was inaugurated more than 30 years ago and is still operational. The machinery built in the Soviet Union, although old, is still working without any serious technical problems.” However, the Russian consul general stresses the need to upgrade the PSM and supply it with new machinery so that production level is brought up. “We are prepared to come in and modernise the project. About four years ago, we presented the PSM management with a detailed plan of upgrading the steel production level to three million tonnes, which is still under consideration by our partners.
“I personally want to stress my conviction that the follow-up of our bilateral cooperation around the PSM can move forward the whole complex of our bilateral ties.”
On the subject of Pakistan’s energy crisis, he says that Russia is the world’s biggest energy supplier and its assistance in the field of energy can be rendered in the form of oil and gas supplies as our experts also assisted the Iranians in bringing the gas pipeline to the Iran-Pakistan border.
“A very important and fruitful sphere of bilateral cooperation is Russia’s possible participation in building irrigation projects in Pakistan. Russia has a vast experience of using modern machinery in this field and in the past, we built a lot of irrigation systems in Central Asia. In 2010 and 2011, Russia sent food, tents, water pumps and water purifiers among other relief goods to the flood-affected people in Pakistan.”
He says that the biggest prospect for future development of mankind lies in outer space as space is an inexhaustible source of energy and raw materials besides being an important source of human knowledge. Russia now is undoubtedly the world leader in space exploration and in manned spaceflights.
“Russia and Pakistan have already started cooperation in space as in December 2001 a Russian missile launched Pakistani satellite ‘BADAR-2’ into orbit.”
He says that preparations are under way for the next session of inter-ministerial Russian-Pakistani commission on trade, economic, scientific and technical cooperation to be held in Islamabad in December 2011.
“During the session, both sides are expected to discuss possible ways of cooperation in many fields including steel and aluminium production, oil and gas, mining, telecommunications, civil engineering, automobile industry, banking and financial sector, construction of highways, railroads and pipelines, science and technology.”
Demidov also suggests that the two countries can cooperate in the field of education by training Pakistani students in Russian universities.
“There are significant similarities between Russia and Pakistan. Both are multi-ethnic with deep historical roots; both are blessed with rich natural resources and both have adopted the road to democracy. Russia is quite convinced that democracy in every country should be home-grown and cannot be imposed from abroad.”
He says that coming closer to Russia is not and should not be the only option for Pakistan. “We think that Pakistan should continue its long-time cooperation with the US. And, undoubtedly, we will only support Pakistan in its aspiration to maintain its time-tested, all-weather friendship with China. What we want is to complement the existing cooperation with these nations. We wish to add what the listed nations could not and possibly do not want to give to Pakistan.”
He observes that the peoples of Russia and Pakistan know very little about each other and more human contacts is required. “We need to encourage businesspeople from both countries to come and to start investing. Many Russian businesspersons are listed among the world’s richest, but they need to be encouraged to come and invest in Pakistan. They should be invited to business and investment exhibitions and fairs, and to participate in business forums, in talks and negotiations on specific projects.”
The Russian consul general says that he is absolutely convinced that Russia and Pakistan have a lot of potential in assisting each other in resolving issues being faced by them. “We can help our nations to overcome the remnants of the gloomy past and open the doors for fruitful mutually beneficial cooperation.”