Islamabad seeks investment, Moscow wants to tackle terror

Zardari signs several MOUs in key visit to historically ‘cold’ Russia.

MOSCOW:

Russia and Pakistan on Thursday pledged to boost economic ties and coordinate efforts to fight terror as the Kremlin welcomed President Asif Ali Zardari for a key visit after the killing of Osama bin Laden.

This is the first official visit by a Pakistani leader since the fall of the Soviet Union, former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto being the last leader to visit Moscow during Soviet times.

“We are interested in coordinating our efforts on the international arena.  It is obvious that our countries are facing absolutely the same threat, I mean international terrorism,” Russian President Dmitry Medvedev told President Zardari at the Kremlin.

“We have to do everything so that we could jointly counter this main evil of the 21st century,” Medvedev said in comments released by the Kremlin.

Russia has for years been struggling to root out an insurgency in the North Caucasus following two wars with separatists in Chechnya after the fall of the Soviet Union. The Kremlin says Caucasus militants receive support from abroad.

Zardari, who kicked off his three-day trip to Russia on Wednesday, expressed hope his historic visit would help deepen ties between the two countries which share a complicated history.

Moscow is not usually seen as an ally of Islamabad, not least because of its historically close ties to Pakistan’s traditional foe India.

“Our countries are very close neighbours. We are located in the same region … the time has come to acknowledge the importance of our countries for each other and the importance of regional cooperation,” Zardari said.

The two leaders oversaw the signing of several framework agreements on cooperation including in energy and agriculture and adopted a joint declaration highlighting the importance of tighter economic cooperation.

“Projects of regional development can secure prosperity for all the peoples in the region,” said the declaration, adding it supported Russian companies willing to pursue economic, infrastructure and banking projects in Pakistan.

Those projects would include plans by gas giant Gazprom to develop gas fields in Pakistan, the declaration said, while Tyazhpromexport, part of state conglomerate Russian Technologies, would help modernise a metals plant in Karachi.

Vedomosti business daily, citing a source close to the management of Russian Technologies, said on Wednesday that the two countries were expected to agree on a $540 million deal for Pakistan to upgrade the Soviet-built Karachi-based Pakistan Steel mills and increase its production capacity to seven million tonnes a year.

The two countries also signed an agreement on promoting air travel while the president emphasized currency swap agreements and the opening of bank branches in each other’s countries.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 13^th, 2011.