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MOSCOW, Feb 6: President Pervez Musharraf completed his three-day ground breaking visit to Russia on Thursday and went back home in the afternoon carrying with him a number of symbolic gestures of friendship which reinforced the ‘good things’ of the past like cooperation in the oil and gas sector and space technology and a $100 million MOU for the Karachi Steel Mills.
Addressing the Russian-Pakistani media, the president said that the two countries had decided to bury the “bad things” of the past and reinforce its “good things”.
He said the Pakistan-Russia Joint Economic Cooperation Commission would meet in the first half of this year to discuss the possibility of expanding bilateral trade which was at present hovering around $83 million annually.
The president said that during his talks with the Russian president he found him to be desirous of developing relations with Pakistan without letting it be influenced by the level of its relations with a third country. Gen Musharraf said he assured President Putin that Pakistan would not let the level of its relations with Moscow to be dictated by its relations with India. “We decided that our relations should be developed purely on bilateral basis and should not be influenced by third party concerns.”
In reply to a question, the president said he did discuss the issue of Kashmir with his Russian counterpart but did not request him to broker peace between India and Pakistan as according to him so long as the other side to the dispute did not agree to mediation by a third party it was no use talking about it.
“But, of course, I thanked President Putin for his continued engagement with the problem and his efforts to reduce tension in South Asia. We believe the president is the best placed world statesman to play a role in resolving disputes between India and Pakistan.”
Gen Musharraf said there was no divergence in the views of the two countries on the issue of Kashmir as “we too believe that we must resolve our disputes peacefully and improve relations with India”.
Talking about the Pakistan-Russia cooperation in the war against terrorism, he said he had discussed the issue with President Putin with particular reference to Al Qaeda. “I gave to the (Russian) president my understanding about the apprehensions regarding Chechen members of Al Qaeda and also assured him that we will not allow our territory to be used for any kind of terrorism by anybody and that Chechnya was Russia’s internal problem.”
Asked to elaborate his remarks about Al Qaeda, the president said the organization was in disarray. “They are dispersed, they are on the run and in hiding. They are only capable of staging minor activities. They cannot carry out major terrorist actions,” he elaborated.
President Musharraf said he was concerned about the supply of Russian military hardware to India and believed that Russia knew about these concerns, but thought it was the bilateral business between India and Russia, and Pakistan had no complaints about it. “We maintain a balance in conventional arms with India and any time that balance gets upset by India’s new purchases we do our replenishment and immediately correct the balance,” he added.
Answering a question, he said Pakistan was open to military hardware purchases from any where and defence collaboration with any country which was willing to have such relations with it.
This was a clear indication that the president did probe during the visit the possibility of diversifying Pakistan’s sources of arms supplies. And perhaps Russia, which is always in need of ready cash, would now consider obliging in view of the fact that Pakistan today had reserves of $10 billion and would be ready to even pay cash for essential purchases and also because India, which used to purchase about 70 per cent of its military hardware needs from Russia, was now diversifying its sources of supplies.
When the president was asked for his comments on US Secretary of State Colin Powell’s statement regarding Iraqi embassy’s activities in Islamabad, he said he had not seen the statement and he would be able to give Pakistan’s position on the matter only after having read the statement.
Asked for his comments on an Indian leader’s offer of conditional talks with Pakistan, the president said he had not seen the statement but made it very clear that Pakistan was for talks with no conditions attached.
Answering a question about India’s claim on Thursday that it had shot down a Pakistani spy plane on the Line of Control, he said Pakistan did not have any spy planes whereas India possessed them and Pakistan had shot down some of them when they crossed over. “However, if you are talking about unmanned vehicle, then I can assure you that no such thing has happened.”
TRADE MATTERS: On the sidelines of the press conference, Petroleum Secretary Abdullah Yousuf, who had met the representatives of two Russian oil giants — Gazprom and Lukoil — earlier in the day, told Dawn that Gazprom had shown interest in investing in the upstream part of the oil and gas sector like exploration and development. “I told Lukoil about their competitor Gazprom’s interest and invited them as well to come in and establish their presence in Pakistan,” he said.
“I also discussed the gas pipeline project with Gazprom and told them that since they enjoy very good relations with India they could, perhaps, use their good offices to persuade the Indians to withdraw their misplaced reservations about the pipeline’s security and safety,” he pointed out.
Industries Secretary Akram Sheikh said that if Pakistan paid $100 million in cash to Russia for the balancing modernization, replacement and expansion of steel mills then it would get a discount of as much as 20 per cent, “and with the addition of 0.4 million tons to the existing 1.1 million ton capacity the KSM’s income will jump up immediately by $200 million a year which would more than take care of the remaining $80 million within six months.”
Commerce Minister Humayun Akhtar Khan believed that when the joint commission would meet in the next three to four months, Pakistan would be able to secure substantial access to Russian markets for its textile, both the low-end products as well as the value-added ones.
Prime minister’s adviser on finance Shaukat Aziz was perhaps the most upbeat member of the visiting team. He tried to give a positive spin to almost every matter of concern that was raised by journalists.
However, when he was asked about the debt rescheduling issue which was to be resolved during the visit, he said the two countries were very close to reaching an agreement which would save Pakistan about $125 million in annual repayment.
He was also evasive about the still unresolved dispute between the two countries on the private sector’s claim on Russia amounting about $112 million.
RUSSIAN AMBASSADOR: Russian ambassador in Islamabad Edward S. Shevchenko, who was here working overtime to get things started “on the new book of relations” between the two countries, said that President Putin had accepted, in principle, the invitation extended by President Musharraf to visit Pakistan and that the dates would be decided through mutual consultations.
“But before that the Russian foreign minister would visit Pakistan. He was scheduled to visit Pakistan at about this time but because of the president’s visit to Russia he postponed his visit which would now be fixed for an early date,” the ambassador added.
In the opinion of the ambassador the visit went off very well.
Foreign Affairs Secretary Riaz Khokar, when asked, said President Putin did not raise the issue of safety and security of Pakistan’s nuclear assets.
