Russia cooled Pak-India stand-off: Tehmina.

Byline: SHAFQAT ALI

ISLAMABAD -- Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua yesterday said that Russia had helped in cooling the Pak-India tension amid threats of a full-fledged war.

Janjua and Russian envoy Alexey Dedov also expressed optimism about the future of Pak-Russia bilateral relationship.

They were speaking at an International Conference on Pakistan-Russia Strategic Relations: Prospects for Cooperation, which was held under the auspices of Strategic Vision Institute, an Islamabad based think tank. Besides, Janjua and Dedov the conference was addressed by a number of local and Russian speakers.

The conference had been organized by SVI to explore the prospects of expansion in Pak-Russia relations in view of the changing regional and international geo-political environment, warming economic ties between the two countries, and their growing bilateral military cooperation.

Both Secretary Janjua and Russian Ambassador Alexey Dedov mentioned the upcoming high level engagement between the two countries in Kyrgyzstan in June later this year on the sidelines of Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit.

Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua said that Pakistan and Russia were having an 'emerging partnership' which had 'tremendous scope'. She said the growth in relations was underpinned by progressive institutional relations, summit level exchanges, military to military ties, and strategic cooperation for peace in Afghanistan.

She praised the Russian role in de-escalating the recent Indo-Pak crisis and its offer for mediation between Pakistan and India.

The foreign secretary saw 'a change in the configuration of Pak-Russia relations' from Moscow's 'nuanced policy towards South Asia'. Russia's policy for peace and stability in the region was balanced, she maintained.

Dedov said that Pakistan's membership of SCO has advanced the potential of cooperation between the two countries. Mentioning the institutional processes between the two countries, he said the high level political dialogue was contributing to the growth of ties, whereas economic cooperation was being driven by Inter-Governmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific and Technical Cooperation. A meeting of the commission is planned for the last quarter of this year, he said.

The envoy said that energy was the mainstay of Russia's economic cooperation with Pakistan and gave an overview of the developments related to the North South Gas pipeline. He said that Russia had after the signing of...