Monitoring Desk: The Chief of Army Staff of Pakistan General Qamar Javed Bajwa would visit Russia on October 4, reports Russian media.
COAS will briefly visit Kabul while traveling to Moscow, claims Afghan press.
According to Russian media, Chief of Army Staff of Pakistan General Qamar Javed Bajwa would visit Russia on October 4 and there is possibility of his presence during the concluding session of on-going military exercises of Pakistan and Russian armies.
It may be mentioned that over 200 servicemen of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan are busy in ” Дружба-2017” which is called “Friendship-2017” exercise which will last until October 4, 2017.
Colonel Sergey Dmitriev, the commander of the motorized rifle brigade of the Southern Military District (SE) is heading exercises from Armed Forces of the Russian Federation while Brigadier Sayed Alamdar Hussain Shah is heading from the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.
Joint military exercises are in process at an altitude of up to 2,300 meters above sea level in the highlands of the Caucasian Range. During the exercises, servicemen of the two countries are conducting combat training tasks at high altitude mountainous conditions for fighting against terrorists groups and conventional illegal armed formations.
Islamabad and Kremlin are getting closer and both countries are engage in buying and selling of military hardware and military cooperation. Sergey Kamenev who heads the Pakistan sector of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences believes that it would take a greter time for both the countries to enhance their bilateral relations as trade turnover between Russia and Pakistan is declining and the only big construction project involving Russia of a gas pipeline from Karachi to Lahore has been suspended. The cost of the project is $ 2.5 billion. Russian regional experts believe that Pakistan will take a long time to decade to take any paradigm shift because it (Pakistan) has deep rooted diplomatic relations with United States though US is blaming Pakistan for housing terrorists. “It will take a decade or more for Pakistan to decide to prefer diplomatic relations with Russia over United States”, believe Russian Think Tanks.
Islamabad adds
Foreign Office of Pakistan confirms that COAS General Qamar Javed Bajwa is expected to visit Russia during the first week of October. However Foreign Office did not confirm date of his departure for Russia.
