KARACHI  -  The Consul General of Russian Federation in Karachi Andrey V. Fedorov has said the bilateral cooperation among Pakistan and Russia was rapidly developing and high level contacts between leadership of both the countries had further strengthened it.

He said this while talking to APP and later on, addressing the “People’s Unity Day” ceremony held here late Friday night at the Consulate General of the Russian Federation.

People’s Unity Day, is being celebrated by people of Russia on November 4 every year to commemorate an unprecedented resilience of our nation, Fedorov said in his speech. Relying a question regarding Russia-Pakistan ties and the SCO Summit, Andrey V. Fedorov said the relations between Russia and Pakistan were developing with passage of time and currently there was a trade volume of over $ 2 billion between the two countries. He said all members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization are equal and working together to save future of our children. He said SCO was providing stability of the region and it was working well. Later on, addressing the ceremony, Andrey said “People’s Unity Day” is the day when our country rose from the ashes and liberated itself from the Polish occupants during the so-called Time of Troubles.

He said at the end of the 16th century and the beginning of the 17 century, Russia struggled through political chaos, Western intervention, impostors, famines and many other horrible events. Our civilization, culture and people were literally on the brink of extinction. And in that very moment in the year of 1612, an ordinary shopkeeper Kuzma Minin and a rich Duke Dmitry Pozharsky formed the people’s volunteer militia that helped Russia to regain its true independence. At the end of the time of troubles our nation learned many valuable lessons that have continued to pass through generations. Firstly, instead of another civil war and internal strife of the elites Russians assembled a democratic Council from all regions and social classes to elect a new czar Mikhail Romanov, whose dynasty ruled Russia for more than 300 years.

Referring to Pakistan-Russia relations, Andrey V Fedorov said in the recent years, bilateral cooperation of the two countries had rapidly developed. The level and frequency of the high-level contacts between Russia and Pakistan have elevated dramatically since the last year, when we celebrated the 75th anniversary of the Establishment of Russia-Pakistan diplomatic relations, the Russian CG said and added that it was especially reflected on July 3 at the SCO Head of States meeting in Astana, on the sidelines of which Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

He also referred the visit of the Deputy Prime Minister of Russia Aleksei Overchuk to Islamabad on September 18-19, Russia-Pakistan Trade and Investment Forum in Moscow on October 1 that gave a powerful impetus to our economic cooperation, the SCO Heads of Governments Meeting on October 15-16 in Islamabad, on the sidelines of which Head of the Russian Government Mikhail Mishustin met with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and discussed all the critical issues on the bilateral agenda.  He said, just recently the Chairwoman of the Russian Senate Valentina Matvienko also paid a visit to Pakistan as well. He hoped that all these meetings will result in a further progress in our ties, the projects discussed during our interactions will take form and the true potential of our cooperation will soon be realized. Sindh Governor Muhammad Kamran Khan Tessori, Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, senior members of provincial cabinet, former Speaker Sindh Assembly Agha Siraj Durrani, MNA Dr Farooq Sattar, PPP Sindh president Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, Diplomats of other countries, business community representatives and media persons were present on the occasion.

A cake cutting ceremony was also held on People’s Unity Day while Russian artists performed and mesmerized the audience with their traditional Russian dance before being served with delicious dinner. On the occasion of the Unity Day ceremony, a photo exhibition was also arranged that attracted the participants.