Putin meets Nawaz today in Astana at SCO Summit
Astana, Kazakhstan: Russian President Vladimir Putin will have a detail meeting Prime Minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif here today on Friday June 9, 2017.
Both leaders have already arrived in Astana to attend 17th Summit of Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). Pakistan will get full membership of SCO today during heads of state meeting.
Agenda of their meeting is yet to be released to media but diplomatic circles believe that important issues including Pak-Russian bilateral trade, Afghanistan war, regional security and role of Pakistan in Middle East will come under discussions.
Pakistan and Russia are working to enhance bilateral trade balance and close cooperation in military and economic sectors. Pakistan has shown its interest in buying military hardware from Russia but no major deal is yet to be finalized between the two countries. Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu visited Islamabad in 2014 while Pakistan participated in Russian war games and also attended Army exhibitions during the last three years.
Russian has been working to bag a major project in Pakistan that is construction of South-North Gas pipeline project that would transport imported NLG from port city of Karachi to provincial capital of Punjab—Lahore. This mega project was signed by the two countries in October 2015 on BOOT model (Build Own Operate Transfer). This project was scheduled to be started in 2016. However, this project is yet to be kicked off.
It is expected that Russian President Putin would ask Prime Minister of Pakistan about the status of South-North Gas pipeline project and would also discuss how Pakistan and Russia can enhance bilateral trade.
They had their last brief meeting in Ufa SCO Summit.
