Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf on Thursday said Russia was a source of peace and stability at both, regional and the global level, and its growing power was a positive development for the multi-polar world of today.
The prime minister said this while warmly welcoming a delegation of the Council of Federation of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation led by Valentina Matvienko, chairwoman of the council at the PM’s House.
Russian ambassador to Pakistan Andrey Bundnik accompanied the delegation.
Ashraf said there had been a visible expansion in the relations as well as economic cooperation between the two countries and Pakistan greatly valued Russia’s interest to invest in the energy sector of Pakistan. He said there was a vast potential for further increasing the bilateral trade.
“There is a national consensus in Pakistan on building strong relationship with the Russian Federation and we attach great importance to our relations with Russia. Both the countries have initiated a process of building a broad-based long term partnership,” the prime minister said.
“We greatly value the support and assistance of Russian Federation in the war against terrorism,” Ashraf added.
Matvienko thanked him for meeting the delegation and said Pakistan was an important partner of Russia and played an important role in international relations.
She said the exchange of visits of the parliamentary delegations of both the countries would help further strengthen bilateral relations. She said some 2,000 Pakistani students had graduated from Russian universities and Russia would welcome more students from Pakistan.
The prime minister said parliaments of both the countries could certainly play an important role in strengthening the relationship between the two countries.
He said Pakistan was an ideal country for foreign investors and Russian investors must be encouraged to invest in Pakistan.
Ashraf thanked the Russian Federation for signing a memorandum of understanding for expansion and modernisation of the Pakistan Steel Mills and expressed hope that the work would be completed on time.