ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan was accorded red carpet welcome on Wednesday as he reached Russia on a two-day “historic” visit, his office confirmed in a social media post.

The Pakistani prime minister’s visit coincides with the heightening of tensions between Moscow and Kyiv after the Russian president deployed military forces into two breakaway regions of eastern Ukraine.

“Prime Minister Imran Khan was given a red carpet reception upon his arrival at the Moscow Airport. The PM was also accorded guard of honour,” the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) announced in a Twitter post wherein it also shared his photo on Moscow airport.

Earlier, the PMO announced on social media that the prime minister was also accompanied by his senior cabinet members to Russia.

Khan’s visit comes after President Vladimir Putin’s announcement on Monday, and his signing of a decree on the deployment of Russian troops to the two breakaway regions, moves that have drawn international condemnation and immediate US sanctions, with President Joe Biden signing an executive order to halt US business activity in the breakaway regions.

In an interview published on Monday, Khan played down the timing of the visit, and any effect it would have on Pakistan’s relations with the West, saying the trip was planned “well before the emergence of the current phase of Ukrainian crisis ... I received the invitation from President Putin much earlier.”

In an interview to Russia Today broadcast on Tuesday, Khan reiterated that his two-day visit for talks on economic cooperation was planned before the current crisis.

“This doesn’t concern us, we have a bilateral relation with Russia and we really want to strength it,” Khan said of the Ukraine crisis.

Khan will be the first Pakistani prime minister to visit Russia in 23 years.

Relations between Pakistan and Russia were minimal for years as Islamabad sided with the United States in the Cold War and was given Major Non-NATO Ally status by Washington after US forces invaded Afghanistan in 2001.

In recent years, however, relations between the United States and Pakistan have deteriorated and there has been a thawing between Moscow and Islamabad, which has seen the planning of projects in the gas and energy fields.

Last year, the two countries formally signed an amended inter-governmental agreement for a flagship pipeline project due to be carried out by Russia to join Pakistan’s Punjab province with the financial hub and port city of Karachi.

The project was earlier known as the North-South Pipeline and is now called the Pakistan Stream Gas Pipeline Project which will deliver imported liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Pakistan’s coastal regions to industrial areas in Punjab.

The initiative had remained on hold since 2015 due to disagreements over fees and United States’ sanctions against the Russian state conglomerate Rostec.

In September 2021, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov visited Pakistan and held wide-ranging talks on bilateral relations and regional and global issues.