-Pakistani, Russian FMs hold joint conference after bilateral meeting in Moscow
-Both sides discuss building Humanitarian, Cul-tural, educational links
-Bilawal says Pakistan consider Russia an im-portant player in West, South and Central Asia -Reiterates Islamabad’s high-level contact with Russian Federation
DM Monitoring
MOSCOW: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Viktorovich Lavrov has said that Moscow will cooperate with Pakistan to meet its energy require-ments.
Addressing a joint press conference with Pakistan Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari in Moscow, the Russian foreign minister said Russia will continue its cooperation with Pakistan in various fields.
“Pakistan and Russia have a common position on various forums and we will move ahead for further development,” Russian Foreign Minister add-ed.
Lavrov said Russia was satisfied over its military cooperation with Pakistan and that both countries were holding regular military contacts including joint exercises and military training.
He said the elimination of terrorism from the region was directly linked with Afghanistan they had agreed to use the capacities of SCO, particularly its contact group on Afghanistan for the purpose.
The Russian foreign minister condemned the terrorist attack in Peshawar mosque earlier on the day, and called for global cooperation for the elimi-nation of terrorism.
He said during the meeting they discussed building humanitarian, cultural and educational links. Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto called for the reso-lution of the Ukraine conflict through diplomatic means saying that devel-oping countries like Pakistan are facing negative consequences of the con-flict in terms of economic impact.
“We have a firm belief that all conflicts can be resolved peacefully and there are no obstacles which diplomacy cannot surmount. Ukraine conflict is no exception,” the foreign minister added. He hoped that the “strong tradition of diplomacy of Russia would help achieve the peaceful resolution of the conflict.
The foreign minister said that Pakistan considered Russia an important player in West, South and Central Asia and that the country would keep up high-level contact with the Russian Federation.
He said both countries were celebrating the 75th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic relations and that Pakistan desired to strengthen its coopera-tion with Russia in the fields of trade, security, defence, counter-terrorism, education and people-to-people contacts.
To a question on Pak-Russia energy cooperation, the foreign minister said the incumbent government was committed to coping with the country’s energy needs. He said Pakistan valued its cooperation with Russia, the United States, and Europe and that the country consistently called for dia-logue and peaceful resolution of disputes.
