Not aware of any oil deal with Pakistan, says Russian envoy

ISLAMABAD: Russian Consul General Andrey Viktorovich Fedrov has stated that he wasn’t aware of any oil deal between Russia and Pakistan. However, he said that Pakistan and Russia were currently experiencing friendly bilateral ties and Kremlin considers Islamabad a ‘friendly’ country.

In an interview, the Russian consul general also expressed his desire to establish trade and economic cooperation with between Russia and Pakistan. Fedrov said that trade ties between Pakistan and Russia were affected due to “illegal sanctions” by the West.

While expressing trade potential between Pakistan and Russia, he said that Russia can prove to be an important trade partner to Pakistan in many fields including oil, gas and energy; meanwhile, Pakistan can also assist Russia in various sectors, including agricultural and medical.

Further in the interview, he stated that during former prime minister Imran Khan’s meeting with President Vladimir Putin, the two premiers discussed a variety of issues. However, he was not aware of the details of any oil procurement agreement as claimed by Khan.

Fedrov, while speaking on the Russia-Ukraine conflict, said that their position was very clear. We will not allow anyone to kill Russian nationals. For the last eight years, efforts were being made to settle issues through diplomacy with Ukraine. However, since the problems weren’t resolved through dialogue, a special operation was launched against Ukraine.

The Russian diplomat claimed that Western countries are the biggest obstacle to resolving the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. “Whenever the process of peaceful negotiations begins, it is ruined by Washington,” he added.

He added that if trade and economic cooperation between Asian countries, including China, Russia and European countries improve, the United States will have no role in the region and consequently they wouldn’t be able to destabilise the region.