PESHAWAR: Russia on Monday inaugurated its consulate in the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province.
At the inauguration ceremony in Peshawar, Russian Ambassador Alexey Yurievich Dedov said his country and Pakistan have enjoyed 70 years of diplomatic relations.
Recent developments, including visits of Pakistani premiers to Russia, show that bilateral ties are improving, he added.
“Trade between the two countries has reached $541 million, and we want this to grow further. We need to give an additional push to the current dynamics,” he said, adding that the consulate is aimed at promoting bilateral friendship and cooperation in various sectors.
Mohammed Arshallah Khan, Russia’s honorary consul for KP, said the two countries are “natural allies” by geography and culture. “We need to give this a helping hand to make this friendship long-lasting,” he added.
In his address at the ceremony, KP Gov. Iqbal Zafar Jhagra said Russia “has had highs and lows in diplomatic relations with Pakistan,” and the inauguration of the consulate “is a new chapter” in those relations.
Former Pakistani Ambassador to Russia, Khalid Khattak, also addressed the ceremony, welcoming the consulate’s opening and expressing hope that it will promote bilateral ties.
Provincial Assembly members Shah Farman, Atif Khan and Sardar Hussain Babak were also present.
Dr. Sarfaraz Khan, director of the Area Study Center (Russia, China and Central Asia) at the University of Peshawar, told Arab News: “The opening of the consulate shows the paradigm shift in Pakistan’s policy.”
He added: “In the current situation, the US and India are allies. Meanwhile, an alliance is growing between Pakistan, China and Russia.”
Both the federal Pakistani government and KP’s provincial government are interested in closer ties with Russia under the prevailing circumstances, he said.
“Pakistan and Russia carried out joint military exercises in Gilgit-Baltistan (Pakistan) and also in Russia in 2017. The KP government has also signed an agreement with Russia to set up an oil refinery in Karak district. These activities show growing relations between Russia and Pakistan.”
Russia opens consulate in Peshawar
Russia opens consulate in Peshawar
Top entertainment figures back under-fire UN Palestinians expert
PARIS: Over a hundred top figures from the world of entertainment signed an open letter Saturday in support of UN Palestinian human rights expert Francesca Albanese who faces calls to resign over comments about the war in Gaza.
France and Germany have called for Albanese to step down over remarks last weekend in which she referred to a “common enemy of humanity” after criticizing “most of the world” and the media for enabling Israel’s “genocide” in Gaza.
Critics and Israel have accused the UN Special Rapporteur of referring to Israel as a “common enemy,” while Albanese has denounced this as a “manipulation” and “completely false.”
In a letter organized by the Artists for Palestine group and shared with AFP, over a 100 cultural figures backed her, including actors Mark Ruffalo and Javier Bardem, Nobel-winning author Annie Ernaux and British musician Annie Lennox.
The signatories “offer our full support to Francesca Albanese, a defender of human rights and therefore also of the Palestinian people’s right to exist,” the letter says.
“There are infinitely more of us, in every corner of the Earth, who want force no longer to be the law. Who know what the word ‘law’ truly means,” it concludes.
Published in French on the website of Artists for Palestine, it also reproduces the full remarks by Albanese who was speaking via videoconference at a forum last Saturday organized by the Al Jazeera TV network.
Other celebrities to offer support for her include actresses Rosa Salazar and Asia Argento, Oscar-nominated film directors Yorgos Lanthimos and Kaouther Ben Hania, Latin music star Residente, and photographer Nan Goldin.
A group of French MPs sent a letter to French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot on Tuesday denouncing Albanese’s remarks as “antisemitic.”
Barrot called for her to step down a day later, saying that France “unreservedly condemns the outrageous and reprehensible remarks.”
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul on Thursday said her position was “untenable.”
‘Shame of our time’
Albanese is one of the most outspoken critics of Israel’s more-than-two-year bombardment of Gaza which has resulted in the deaths of over 70,000 people and the destruction of most of the territory’s infrastructure.
She has called it the “the shame of our time” and says she always asks prime ministers, presidents and foreign ministers the same question: “How do you sleep? When will you act?“
The Italian-born legal expert, who began her unpaid role in 2022, was targeted with sanctions by the Trump administration in July last year over what it called her “biased and malicious” work.
UN special rapporteurs like Albanese are independent experts who are appointed by the UN rights council, but do not speak on behalf of the United Nations.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres distanced himself from Albanese on Thursday when his spokesman said “we don’t agree with much of what she says.”
“We wouldn’t use the language that she’s using in describing the situation,” his spokesman Stephane Dujarric added.
The Gaza war was sparked by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people.
On that day, militants abducted 251 people into Gaza.
The open letter and signatories can be seen here.
