ISLAMABAD  -   Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif on Saturday while noting the historic cordial ties between Pakistan and Russia, said that Pakistan wanted to enhance bilateral cooperation with Russia in a number of areas particularly in energy, trade and investment.

The prime minister expressed deep condolences on the loss of precious lives in the Crocus City Hall attack outside Moscow last week and said Pakistan stood in solidarity with Russia at this tragic hour.

The prime minister expressed these views during a meeting with Ambassador of the Russian Federation Albert P. Khorev who called on him, PM Office Media Wing said in a press release.

The prime minister stressed the need for early convening of the 9th session of the Inter-gov­ernmental Commission (IGC), due to be hosted by Russia later this year. He also urged the Russian side to send a delegation to Pakistan to hold discus­sions with their counter­parts to identify ways to enhance the existing lev­el of trade and investment ties between the two countries. While fondly recalling their meeting on the sidelines of the Shang­hai Cooperation Organi­zation (SCO) Summit in Samarkand in 2022, the prime minister reiterated his invitation to President Putin to undertake an of­ficial visit to Pakistan at his earliest convenience. He also thanked Presi­dent Vladimir Putin for the congratulatory mes­sage sent to him on his re-election. The Russian ambassador assured the prime minister that Rus­sia wanted to build stron­ger ties with Pakistan and said that, in addition to energy, trade and invest­ment, Russia was also keen to enhance coopera­tion in education and cul­ture. Both countries are also actively involved in SCO. PM directs forma­tion of committee on cli­mate change Also, Prime Minister Shehbaz Shar­if Saturday directed the formation of a commit­tee to identify problems related to climate change and to tackle them. He was chairing a meeting regarding Ministry of Cli­mate Change. The Prime Minister was briefed on the progress on the poli­cies and projects related to climate change. He said climate change was a very important issue, adding Pakistan was among the countries that had least role in climate destruc­tion but was the most af­fected by climate change. He said a comprehensive and effective strategy was needed to counter the ef­fects of climate change. Climate change was re­lated to agriculture, ener­gy, water, infrastructure and other sectors, he add­ed. Minister for Informa­tion and Broadcasting At­taullah Tarar, Minister for Planning and Develop­ment Ahsan Iqbal, Minis­ter for Economic Affairs Ahad Cheema, high lev­el officials of relevant de­partments and experts of climate change attended the meeting.