Moscow and Islamabad have continued to bolster their economic partnership, with Pakistani Maritime Affairs Minister Qaiser Ahmed Sheikh earlier telling Sputnik that trade between the two countries is expected to grow in the coming years.
In an interview with Sputnik, Sardar Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari, Pakistan’s Federal Minister of Energy, touched upon across-the-board cooperation between Moscow and Islamabad, which includes the energy sector.
On Oil and Gas
Leghari made it clear that Islamabad is ready and willing to see Russian companies explore Pakistani gas and oil fields.
“Russia has a very advanced, well-researched and well-developed oil and gas sector. So Pakistan feels that on the petroleum sector side, we can actually collaborate to not just benefit ourselves and the consumers in our country, but also to benefit Russian companies,” the Pakistani Federal Minister of Energy stressed.
He added that such cooperation would result in “a lot of value addition” for Pakistani natural resources and minerals sector.
“And we think Pakistan could also open the gates for further oil and gas exploration that we are planning to aggressively pursue and develop as a key backbone of the country’s economy in the future,” Leghari said.
The minister noted that Islamabad “could harvest some benefits and better pricing structures and save on factors like the logistics and the transportation expenses from Russia to Pakistan.”
“We are looking at all that. And we also have to bear in mind the responsibilities we have to the global economy and the global community,” he pointed out.
On Hydropower Project
Islamabad “has encouraged” Russian companies to partake in the reconstruction of a Pakistani hydroelectric power station, Leghari went on to say.
“We would make sure that we have committed to our Russian counterparts, [and] that we give a transparent and level playing field to Russian companies and to encourage them to come and qualify themselves for such expansion projects on the hydroelectricity part,” he stressed.
The Pakistani side “strongly believes that Russia has the strength and has a fair part of the global share of hydropower projects and technology” – something Islamabad wants to benefit from,” the minister underscored.
On Russia-Pakistan SCO and BRICS Cooperation
“Pursuing Pakistan’s interest on platforms like BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) and the SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organization) would really be helpful” for Moscow and Islamabad, Leghari emphasized.
“We [Pakistan] have had a good experience in the SCO and BRICS so far. Russia has very much cooperated with us and we’ve cooperated with them. So we are looking at mutual benefits that we could transfer to each other,” he noted.
Concerning Russia-Pakistan ties on the whole, the minister said he thinks that both sides have realized the fact that the future of these relations “should not just depend on certain ups and downs in the global scenario,” and that “a long-term view” of the relationship is needed.
“We are very grateful to our Russian counterparts that there is a complete understanding. I think the leadership of Pakistan and Russia, Mr. Shehbaz Sharif and President [Vladimir] Putin, in their earlier interactions last year, were able to identify this and come to terms with the fact that we need to have better economic cooperation. That’s what we are pursuing at the moment,” Leghari concluded.
The remarks come after Pakistani Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar told reporters that bolstering mutually beneficial cooperation with Russia remains an important priority for the Pakistani government.
“Pakistani-Russian relations have come a long way. Islamabad is committed to establishing lasting cooperation with Russia. We believe that a step-by-step approach based on trust and mutual respect has put this relationship on a positive path,” Dar stressed, pointing to bilateral cooperation in such sectors as trade, energy, telecommunications, as well as culture and education.
