ISLAMABAD: Pakistani foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Thursday met his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Council of Foreign Ministers meeting in India, vowing to deepen cooperation in energy and food security and enhance people to people contact.
SCO foreign ministers gathered in Goa on Thursday to discuss regional security matters, including adding Iran and Belarus to a union of nations seen as a counterweight to Western influence in Eurasia.
The SCO is a political and security union of countries spanning much of Eurasia, including China, India and Russia. Formed in 2001 by Russia, China and ex-Soviet states in Central Asia, the body has been expanded to include India and Pakistan.
"They discussed bilateral, regional & int’l matters of mutual interest," the Pakistani foreign office said about Lavrov's meeting with Bhutto-Zardari.
"Assured to work closely for further deepening cooperation in food security, energy & people to people contacts."
Last month Pakistan said it had placed its first order for discounted Russian crude oil under a deal struck between Islamabad and Moscow, with one cargo to dock at the port of Karachi in May.
Pakistan's purchase gives Russia a new outlet, adding to Moscow's growing sales to India and China, as it redirects oil from western markets because of the Ukraine war.
As a long-standing Western ally and the arch-rival of neighboring India, which historically is closer to Moscow, analysts say the crude deal would have been difficult for Pakistan to accept, but its financing needs are great.
Discounted crude offers respite as Pakistan faces an acute balance of payments crisis, risking a default on its debt obligations. The foreign exchange reserves held by the central bank are scarcely enough to cover four weeks of controlled imports.
Energy imports make up the majority of the country's external payments.
PAKISTAN-INDIA TIES
Bhutto-Zardari is the first senior Pakistani leader to visit India in nine years amid longstanding tensions between the large, nuclear-armed South Asian rivals.
However, there are no plans for Bhutto-Zardari to meet Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar separately and his visit was not expected to lead to a breakthrough in strained Indian-Pakistani relations.
"During my visit, which is focused exclusively on the SCO, I look forward to constructive discussions with my counterparts from friendly countries," Bhutto-Zardari tweeted before arriving in Goa.
Relations between India and Pakistan have been fraught for decades and they have fought three wars, two of them over the Muslim-majority Himalayan region of Kashmir, which they both claim in full but rule in part.
