The Ukrainian Foreign Minister is expected to travel to Islamabad next week on a visit that will certainly be closely watched both by the western capitals and Moscow due to the ongoing conflict.
Official sources told The Express Tribune on Wednesday that Dmytro Kuleba would visit Pakistan on July 20. He will meet his Pakistani counterpart Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, and likely to call on Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and military authorities.
Though Pakistan and Ukraine have bilateral relations including defence ties, the war in Ukraine will top the agenda during the visit of Kuleba.
There was no official confirmation on either side about the visit.
A senior official, while speaking on condition of anonymity, said the upcoming visit of the Ukrainian foreign minister highlighted Pakistan’s balanced approach towards the conflict.
Pakistan has resisted pressure from the west to take sides since Russia launched the invasion of Ukraine in February last year.
Read more: Pakistan denies arming Ukrainian forces
Islamabad has refused to condemn Moscow's action but at the same time dispatched humanitarian aid to Ukraine and called for the political solution to the conflict. Pakistan has thrice abstained from voting on a resolution at the UN General Assembly denouncing the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
There were reports that Pakistan was providing weapons to Ukraine, something that has strongly been rebutted by Islamabad.
In April in an interview with BBC, the commander of the 17 tank battalion of the Ukrainian army talked about receiving rockets from other countries including Pakistan.
But the foreign office strongly rejected claims of providing any ammunition to Ukraine in its ongoing conflict with Russia, insisting the country maintained a “policy of strict neutrality.”
“I would reiterate what we have said in the past from this podium. Pakistan maintains a policy of strict neutrality in the dispute between Ukraine and Russia and in that context, do not provide any ammunition to them,” foreign office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch had told the weekly news briefing in April.
“However, we must realize that in the past, Pakistan has had strong defence ties with Ukraine. We have also said and I reiterate again, that Pakistan's defence exports are always accompanied with strict end user requirements and we hope those end user requirements would be fully respected by recipients,” she added while hinting at the possibility of the Ukrainian military using the Pakistan ammunition provided earlier.
Officials familiar with the visit of the Ukrainian foreign minister said Pakistan would reiterate its desire for the peaceful solution to the conflict. However, the visit also signals Pakistan’s willingness to accommodate concerns of the west with regard to Russian invasion of Ukraine.
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