A meeting of the committee formed by the prime minister to resolve the long-standing trade issues between Russia and Pakistan was held under the chairmanship of Federal Minister for Finance Senator Ishaq Dar on Monday.
During the meeting, Dar emphasised the importance of resolving 15 year old trade-related financial disputes for taking a giant leap forward for removing the impasse in Pak-Russia trade relation. Any progress made in resolving these issues will create a win win situation for both the parties and shall remove the barriers to mutual trade which have held the trade relations between the two countries hostage for more than one and half decade.
The federal minister said: “We shall be the honest brokers for the settlement of financial claims existing between the Russian government and the trade community of Pakistan and we shall facilitate the process for resolution of bilateral issues”.
The minister further reiterated that the resolution of the 15-year-old financial disputes between the two countries would give a positive signal to the Russian investors to bring their capital to Pakistan and they would also be in a favourable condition to avail trade opportunities existing in the resource-rich Central Asian States.
For expediting the process of resolving the disputes, the minister also formed a sub-committee under the chairmanship of Secretary Commerce Qasim Niaz to have a meaningful dialogue with all the stake-holders in the process and submit its proposals within a week.
The meeting was participated by Minister of State for Commerce Khurram Dastagir, Special Assistant to Prime Minster on Foreign Affairs Tariq Fatimi and senior officials of the ministry of finance.
