ISLAMABAD - Pakistan and Russian have expressed interest in further strengthening cooperation in all fields of mutual interest including trade, energy, defence and culture.

Both the countries also agreed on making joint efforts to enhance trade and economic cooperation. Minister for Commerce and Textile Pervaiz Malik had a bilateral meeting with Minister for Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation, Denis Manturov, who is also the Co-Chair of Pakistan-Russia Inter-Governmental Commission (IGC) on trade, economic, scientific and technical cooperation in Moscow.

Malik extended an invitation to Manturov for a visit to Pakistan and the invitation was accepted, said a press statement issued here on Thursday. Malik was on the visit to Moscow from November 13 to November 16 to attend the 16th meeting of ministers of the SCO member states responsible for foreign economic and foreign trade activity. He was accompanied by MNA Shaista Malik and two officials of the ministry of commerce.

The meeting was attended by ministers of commerce and trade of eight members of the SCO as well as observers. The ministers deliberated on the current situation and prospects for further development of multilateral trade, economic and investment cooperation in the region of SCO. In his statement made at the meeting, Malik highlighted that Pakistan will work proactively with fellow SCO-member states to realise the goals and objectives of the forum keeping in view the SCO charter and the ‘Shanghai Spirit’ of mutual trust, mutual respect, deference to cultural diversity and shared development.

He said that Pakistan looked forward to advancing the overarching goals of the SCO to strengthen political, economic and trade relations between the member states and promoting regional peace, security, and stability. The minister said that Pakistan was a natural SCO partner, ideally located to provide links for regional economic integration within and between SCO member states.

He said that the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) was in step with SCO’s efforts to create trans-continental overland connectivity resulting in stronger regional economic integration. Malik said that Pakistan was partnering in a number of key regional energy and infrastructure initiatives including Turkmenistan-Afghanistan Pakistan-India (TAPI) and the CASA-1000. Pakistan, China, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan have agreed to initiate a bus service that would not only enhance trade but also be an important tool to promote people-to-people contacts between the four countries, he said.

The commerce minister said that Pakistan has undertaken several initiatives which include rebooting of Quadrilateral Agreement for Traffic in Transit (QTTA) between China, Kyrgyz Republic, Kazakhstan and Pakistan, which is also being joined by Tajikistan.

 “The QTTA serves as a conduit to regional connectivity and would become even more effective with our membership of the SCO,” he said. “Pakistan’s strategic aim is to utilise its unique geopolitical position and economic capital to build trade, energy and communications corridors linking South Asia, West Asia, Central Asia and China,” he added.

He said that the government of Pakistan was working on domestic reforms that would help in promoting regional trade and connectivity. “The initiatives include the establishment of the National Single Window to expedite trade clearance, aggressive implementation of trade facilitation agreement and tariff rationalisation to improve further our competitiveness and reduce the cost of doing business,” he said.