PESHAWAR, April 20: A Russian diplomat has called for cooperation and better economic, academic and cultural ties between Pakistan and Russia to manifest political will of both the governments on the issue. “Level of relations between Pakistan and Russia is not defined. Though the leaders of both the countries have been showing eagerness in this direction, their decisions are still not implemented,” said Oleg A. Dzhuraev, the first secretary at the Embassy of Russian Federation in Islamabad, here at the concluding ceremony of a two-day colloquium on the role of Russia in the region. The programme was organised jointly by the Area Study Centre and the Hanns Seidel Foundation.

During the colloquium, scholars and foreign policy experts from Russian Federation, Germany and Pakistan expressed their views on ‘the Role of Russia in the Region’. They stressed the need to build a comprehensive relationship, based on confidence and trust, between the two countries.

Mr Dzhuraev said there was apparently no barrier between Pakistan and Russia but people were dissatisfied with the relationship as there was no progress in the fields of economics, trade and academic cooperation.

“Russia initiated an investment agreement with Pakistan but it has been waiting approval from Pakistan’s Board of Investment (BoI) for the last five years”, Mr Dzhuraev informed the journalists during a press briefing after the colloquium.

Referring to the bilateral relationship between the two countries, Mr Dzhuraev said that the visit of President Musharraf to Russian Federation in February 2003 was the first high level contact since 1970s.

“But the Pakistani embassy in Moscow is not taking initiative to further economic, cultural and academic ties with Russia” said Mr Dzhuraev adding, “ bureaucrats kill ideas instead of materialising them”.

He said Russia supported Pakistan in the filed of academics by sending scholarships for Pakistani students every year but due to indifference of the education ministry not a single student had applied for 25 post-graduate scholarships offered by Russia. “This year there were 15 scholarships and I, after consulting Pakistani education authorities, managed to send one student to Russia”, Mr Dzhuraev said.

There were no political problems but the economic, cultural, academic and humanitarian growth between the two countries was very slow, he said and urged that decisions taken by leaders should be implemented.

He also regretted that there was no information sharing between the two countries. Though four Pakistani journalists were based in Moscow, major issues in Russia were not reported in Pakistani media.

The Russian diplomat said that investors from both the countries should be encouraged but both the governments should also ensure protection to investors. He said that lack of trust between the two countries could create problems in building relations. He said there were investment and tourism opportunities for central Asian states and Russia in Pakistan.

“Central Asian countries are eager to use Pakistani seaport but cannot do it because of the security situation in Afghanistan”, Mr Dzhuraev said adding that there was a good market for Pakistani textile and leather products and fruits in Russia. Private sector is already active as recent visits of cultural and theatrical troupes to Pakistan were organised by private people. Russian embassy also arranged a meeting of Russian investors with Pakistani businessmen but Pakistani officials in Russia had not taken any initiative, Mr Dzhuraev said.

Russian scholars and diplomats said that they supported any process which could bring peace in the region.

“What was done in the past (Russian invasion in Afghanistan), was a mistake. Russian people did not support war. They want that the suffering of people of Afghanistan should end. Russia is ready to take part in rehabilitation of Afghanistan”, the Russian representatives said.

The participants said that peace and security should be established and people-to-people contact should be improved for development of ties between the two countries in the region.

The Russian diplomat said that Islamabad is under a lot of pressure as “US was dictating it what to do and what not to do”. He said Russia was ready to participate in construction of gas pipeline that could give financial benefit to Pakistan.

Ms Irina N. Serenko, Research fellow, Institute of Oriental Studies of Russian Academy of Sciences Moscow’ talked on ‘enhancing social, political, educational and cultural cooperation among the two countries of the region’.

Another researcher from Moscow State Institute of International Relations, Ms Natalia V. Melekhina, discussed ways to explore and means to improve economic, trade, technological and industrial cooperation between the two countries. She said that both the countries could benefit from each others’ experiments on trade and economy.