MOSCOW, Russia: Pakistan’s Ambassador to Russia Shafqat Ali Khan has said that Islamabad is interested in increasing the volume of investment from Moscow.
In a statement as reported by Eurasia Diary, the ambassador said that the bilateral trade and economic relations between Islamabad and Moscow are not satisfactory; however, he expressed hope that they will grow much closer in the future.
“There was an old legal dispute on our Soviet debt which was part of litigation in Pakistan, which prevented Russian investments in Pakistan. Last year we resolved that problem. So that problem was taken care of. So now we are ready to take off in the commercial and investment field,” Shafqat Ali said.
“We think we can invest much more in one of our top priorities in our foreign policy – strong relations with Russia,” he continued.
“And we are sure that much more can be achieved, and there are many opportunities for win-win cooperation of Pakistan and Russia in these strong relationships.”
The envoy said that Pakistan is also looking forward to extending people-to-people contacts between the two Countries.
“Particularly we want to benefit from the excellent higher education opportunities available in Russian Federation for Pakistani students,” he said. “We want more and more Pakistani students to receive higher education in Russia.”
The ambassador stressed that the development of relations with Moscow remains among Pakistan’s foreign policy priorities.
Ambassador Shafqat Ali said that Pakistan-Russia relationships are at the historically the strongest point at the moment.
“Fundamentally I would not be overstating we don’t have big problems in our relations may be some minor commercial dispute here or some issue there. It is a very friendly and deep cooperative relationship,” he said.
