Pakistan’s new friend Russia
10:06 11/05/2011
How the world changes. In the 80s, the US was allied with America fighting the USSR and Islamabad was instrumental in the implosion of the Soviet Union. The Kremlin admitted defeat and retreated from Afghanistan. The ingrates in Washington abandoned Pakistan and on the eve of the victory celebration sanctioned Pakistan for ephemeral faults and perceived crimes.
Today, the US-Pakistan relations are fraying, a victim of Gung-Ho Ramboism, and John Wayne imperialism that tramples on countries to achieve real or imaginary profits. President Zardari’s visit to Moscow is a seminal event. Kremlin has since de-hyphenated its relations with New Delhi and Islamabad. Moscow is no longer looking at Pakistan through Bharati eyes.
Russia’s energy giant Gazprom is interested in developing gas deposits in Pakistan, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his Pakistani counterpart Asif Ali Zardari said on Thursday after talks on bilateral business cooperation.
“The sides supported the interest of Russian business circles in implementing economic, infrastructural and banking projects jointly with the Pakistani government and businesses,” the two leaders said in a statement.
In particular, Russian state-owned mining and metallurgical facility construction company Tyazhpromexport is prepared to modernize a metals plant in Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city while Russia’s largest power trader Inter RAO UES is ready to build power plants in Pakistan, the statement said.
Russia may also join the CASA-1000 project, which will deliver electricity from Tajikistan to Afghanistan and Pakistan and the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project to transport natural gas from Central Asian states to India, the statement said.
In October 2010, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin said that Gazprom might participate in a consortium to build the pipeline. India suggested Gazprom join the project as one of gas suppliers along with Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
The 1,700 kilometer pipeline with a capacity of 30 billion cubic meters per year and a rough cost of $4 billion, stalled by the war in Afghanistan, is supported by the Asian Bank for Development.
It shares a very very tight defense relationship with India. Russia will do nothing to harm its arms industry sales to India. It will smile and nod and make polite words about Pakistan, but no further.
Of the 3 remaining great powers, Russia backs India wholeheartedly, China backs Pakistan wholeheartedly, and the USA tries to play both sides. Pakistan can win over Russia no more than India can win over China. Only the USA is up for grabs.
First of All, to be a good friend of Russia, Pakistan should not comment on Muslims of Chechnia. Russia has killed a lot of people in Chechnia, and Russia has also suffered a lot of losses + suicide attacks in Moscow.
Question is: What should be Pakistans stand in Chechnia??
Of course its not my business, but I'm just asking a question.
Question is: What should be Pakistans stand on Chechnya Issue, if Pakistan wants to improve its ties with Russia? Will Pakistan call Chechnians as terroists, as Russians call them??
After all, Russia has said, Pakistan and Russia suffer from the common enemy i.e. Terrorism.
Good answer! Lets pick and chose which country is allowed to kill muslim brothers. If "all weather" friend kills Uighur muslims its ok, new found love (or john) russia kills muslims thats fine, but if the bharatis kill muslim..burn tyres!
Funny, Indians getting jealous of Pakistan's ties with Russia! and then they say they are not Pakistan centric lol.
Bhaijan, We are just asking few questions. Just to remind you, this is a Pakistan affairs forum, and every question/topic should be Pakistan centric. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
if they’re needy enough all pretense of religion culture brotherhood ummah …all that will be ejected out of the nearest outlet. Now that America has told them of both, it is natural that Pakistan and Russia make some noises of friendship.
Forget chechnians. That’s only when Aamericans were sending the checks in to Islamabad. If the checks stop, they don’t care about chechnians.
Even forget about the boasts of “we Pakistanis brought down the super power Russia”!
Let’s see how they repharse and rewrite history. They are masters at it!
You seriously need a crash course in shistory oops I meant history… your master Russia was never a super power or perhaps we bad pakis were in the dark about the makeup of Soviet Union..
Finally Pakistan is waking up! This is a step in the right direction. We need to establish good relationships with all nations, based on mutual respect and benefit.
Russia, China, Iran, Turkey, Malaysia, Indonesia, Central Asian republics and the list goes on.
This will be beneficial for whole Asia + Russia. Lets work on that...
