By IANS,
Islamabad : Pakistan and Russia are keen to speed up work on the proposed Free Trade Agreement and currency swap arrangement to boost bilateral trade and further strengthen their economic ties.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin met in the Russian city of St Petersburg Monday and discussed ties on the sidelines of the 10th Heads of Government meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.
The two leaders discussed several issues including fight against terrorism besides calling for the need to adopt a regional approach in dealing with common challenges, reported Associated Press of Pakistan.
The two leaders discussed ways to strengthen relations by increasing cooperation in energy, trade, infrastructure development, agriculture, business cooperation and people to people contacts.
Putin said relations between Pakistan and Russia had reached a level where both the countries were in a position to enhance trade, measuring up to their strong ties.
Gilani said Russia was an important country and a source of stability in the region and had contributed significantly for the socio-economic uplift of the region because of its geographical proximity and strength of economy.
The Russian premier supported Gilani’s proposals for implementing trade and energy projects. He announced financing of $500 million for power transmission from Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan to Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Putin also offered Russia’s assistance for the enhancement of the production capacity of the Pakistan Steel Mills by increasing its production from the current one million tonnes to three million tonnes.
Putin said Russia wants materialisation of projects, including the TAPI (Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India) gas pipeline project and the Central Asia South Asia Electricity Trade and Transmission Project (CASA-1000).
Gilani called for the opening of bank branches in both countries to jack up the trade level.
The leasing of Sukhoi commercial aircraft for the Pakistan International Airlines was also discussed during the meeting.