Qureshi justifies PM’s Russia visit, says ‘diplomatic space’ increased

Pakistan on Friday defended Prime Minister Imran Khan’s visit to Russia against the backdrop of the Ukraine crisis, as the foreign minister said the government was convinced that the decision to go ahead with the trip was correct and it helped increase the country’s ‘diplomatic space’.

Speaking at a news conference here after returning from Moscow, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi also revealed that the Biden administration had approached Pakistan before the prime minister’s visit to Russia.

However, he said Pakistan had shared its perspective and objectives of the visit with the United States and went ahead with the visit as planned.

It is believed that the United States through its senior official asked Pakistan to rethink the decision of visiting Russia given the unfolding situation with regards to Ukraine.

Qureshi also confirmed that before leaving for Moscow, the government had conducted in-house consultations inviting retired diplomats and other concerned people to decide whether the prime minister should visit Moscow or not.

Read more: Pakistan embassy in Ukraine advises stranded students to travel to Ternopil

“We did have consultations. We weigh the pros and cons of the visit,” Qureshi said, adding that keeping in view the different dimensions, the government reached a conclusion that the visit must proceed as planned.

He said there was a solid reason for this decision. “We wanted to consolidate our relationship with Russia and through collective wisdom we reached a conclusion that this opportunity should not be squandered.”

The foreign minister said one of the objectives of the prime minister’s visit to Russia was to enhance and maximise Pakistan’s diplomatic space in the fast changing global politics.

“Our decision was correct and we believe that our diplomatic space has increased because of this visit,” the foreign minister claimed.

The opinion in Pakistan as well as outside was divided on whether PM Imran should have gone ahead of the visit given the Ukraine crisis. The Russian decision to launch a full scale military operation against Ukraine just hours before President Putin’s meeting with Prime Minister Imran had further heated the debate.

Sources said the Pakistani delegation did not anticipate the launch of military operation by Russia when they woke up in the morning on February 24. The prime minister and other members of the delegation were concerned before meeting President Putin. Given the sensitivity of the issue, the prime minister was advised to limit his interaction with the public and media. In the original schedule, the premier was scheduled to give an interview to a Russian media outlet while he was also supposed to brief the Pakistani journalists before his departure for Islamabad.

Also read: Military conflict not in anyone’s interest, Imran tells Putin

However, none of those engagements took place. In fact Pakistani journalists were not even given any update or background briefing regarding the prime minister’s engagements in Moscow.

Qureshi said the premier also got a chance to brief the Russian president on the current situation in Afghanistan as well as in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

According to the foreign minister, the engagement with Russia was important given Pakistan’s desire to seek regional connectivity and in that connectivity Moscow had an important role to play.

He said the engagement between the two countries would continue as the foreign ministers of Russia and Pakistan were set to meet in March in China as part of a meeting by the extended neighbours of Afghanistan.

Nevertheless, despite such difficulties, Foreign minister Qureshi was convinced that Pakistan did the right thing by going ahead with the visit.

Sharing details of the visit, the foreign minister said Pakistan wanted to develop a multi-dimensional relationship with Russia covering economic, political, energy and defence cooperation.

The foreign minister said Pakistan being an energy deficient country wanted to buy gas from Russia. Pakistan also proposed that Russia should establish an LNG terminal at Gwardar Port. Russia has shown interest in that proposal, he added.

Similarly, both sides decided to fast-track some of the ongoing energy projects including the Pakistan Stream Gas Pipeline.

To a question, the foreign minister said Pakistan would assess the situation and impact of the sanctions being imposed on Russia. “But we will take a decision in our best national interest,” Qureshi said in a statement that appears to suggest that Pakistan might take an independent position on Russia even if the west and other countries imposed sanctions on Moscow.