ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari arrived in Moscow late Sunday amid efforts to finalize an oil deal between cash-strapped Pakistan and Russia, the Pakistani foreign office said. 

The visit comes after a Russian delegation came to Pakistan to attend the 8th Pakistan-Russia Inter-Governmental Commission (IGC) meetings in Islamabad this month. 

The Russian delegation signed multiple memoranda of understanding with Pakistan in different sectors and also conceptually agreed to provide cheap crude oil to the cash-strapped country, which has been struggling for months to meet its energy needs due to a severe forex crunch. 

In view of Pakistan’s deteriorating economic conditions and its forex reserves declining to a staggering $3.6 billion, Russia also said this month it would allow Pakistan to pay for the energy imports in currencies of friendly countries. 

“Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari has arrived in Moscow on an official visit. The FM was received by senior officials of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Pakistan’s Ambassador to Russia, Mr. Shafqat Ali Khan and officials of the Embassy,” Mumtaz Zahra Baloch, a Pakistani foreign office spokesperson, said on Twitter. 

Over the decades, Pakistan-Russia ties have seen many ups and downs, mainly due to Islamabad’s alliance with Washington. But in recent years, relations between the two countries have warmed up as a countermeasure to proximity between India and the United States (US) on world issues. 

“The foreign minister will hold official talks with his Russian counterpart where the two sides would deliberate upon the entire spectrum of bilateral relations and exchange views on regional and international issues of mutual interest,” the Pakistani foreign office said in an earlier statement. 

On Friday, Reuters reported independent Russian oil refiner Forteinvest had clinched a deal that will see 1,000 tons of Russian gasoline sent to Pakistan by land for the first time. 

The development came days after US State Department Spokesperson Ned Price said “now is not the time” to bolster economic ties with Russia, as the West continues to find ways to curtail Moscow’s finances due to its invasion of Ukraine. 

The Pakistani government, however, reiterated that the South Asian country would go ahead with the oil deal with Russia, adding that all deals will be finalized by March and oil will arrive in Pakistan by the end of April.