Russia and Pakistan agree to cooperate

Russia and Pakistan agreed to cooperate in fighting terrorism and drug crime. Spheres of the bilateral cooperation will include energy, metallurgy, transport and banking, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday following his meeting with Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar. “We have a good future in implementation of major transnational energy projects at the border between the Central Asian and South Asian regions,” Lavrov said. “In our international cooperation we pay special attention to the issues of terrorism and drug crimes. Quite effective are our intergovernmental commissions on practical cooperation. Soon, Russia's federal service representative Russia on control of drug substances will start working in Islamabad.” Lavrov stressed that Russia is ready to provide assistance for the purpose of having a productive meeting of the governmental commission in the first half of the current year. He reported that the Pakistani side received Russia’s draft of a joint action plan in trade and investments. “We discussed cooperation in the framework of the SOC, the Dushanbe quartet and the UN Security Council, as Pakistan is the Security Council’s permanent member for 2012-2013,” Lavrov continued. “We share approaches to major international problems, principles, on the basis of which it is necessary to settle emerging problems.”