ISLAMABAD: Imran Khan will fly to Moscow on Wednesday (tomorrow) to meet President Vladimir Putin, the first such trip by a Pakistan prime minister in two decades, as spiking tensions in eastern Ukraine are heightening Western fears of a Russian invasion and a new war in Europe.
Nawaz Sharif was the last leader to tour Moscow in April 1999, months before the October coup of his army chief Pervez Musharraf, the first trip to Moscow of a head of Pakistan’s government in over two decades.
The two-day visit was planned before the current crisis over Ukraine.
North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) countries fear the volatile east, which has seen intense shelling in recent days and orders for civilians to evacuate, could be a flashpoint in their tensest standoff with Russia since the Cold War, providing the Kremlin with a pretext to invade Ukraine.
The United States and its European partners are keeping on with their strategy of diplomacy and deterrence, offering to keep talking with the Kremlin while threatening heavy sanctions if an invasion happens.
“Pakistan and Russia enjoy friendly relations marked by mutual respect, trust and convergence of views on a range of international and regional issues,” a Foreign Office statement said.
It added that Putin and Khan “will review the entire array of bilateral relations including energy cooperation,” as well as unnamed regional and international issues, including the situation in Afghanistan.
BILATERAL TIES
Relations between Pakistan and Russia were minimal for years as Islamabad sided with the United States in the Cold War and was given “Major Non-NATO Ally” status by Washington after US forces invaded Afghanistan in 2001.
In recent years, however, relations between the United States and Pakistan have deteriorated and there has been thawing between Moscow and Islamabad, which has seen the planning of projects in the gas and energy fields.
The two nations have lately tried to broaden and deepen their relations, with Russia lifting a longstanding arms embargo in 2014 which it had imposed on Pakistan decades ago.
In an interview published on Monday, Khan played down the timing of the visit, and any effect it would have on Pakistan’s relations with the West.
“This visit was planned well before the emergence of the current phase of Ukrainian crisis […] I received the invitation from President Putin much earlier,” he told Newsweek Pakistan.
Pakistan’s increased diplomatic engagements with Russia are understood to be part of the government’s quest to diversify its foreign policy.
In April 2018, Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa became the third consecutive army chief to visit Moscow. His trip resulted in the setting up of a Joint Military Commission between the two countries.
In return, Russia is also increasing diplomatic efforts to revive ties with Pakistan through the $2.5 billion 1,100-km-long Pakistan Steam Gas Pipeline project while offering to bolster anti-terrorism support.
Analysts see the moves as a bid to acquire a new energy market to offset declining business from the West and to increase regional heft as the US deepens ties with India after its withdrawal from Afghanistan.
— With input from Reuters, AP
