Islamabad: Pakistan today said it looked forward to procuring more defence hardware from Russia after Moscow agreed to provide MI-35 helicopters to Islamabad.
The Foreign Office said in a statement issued here that Foreign Affairs Advisor Sartaj Aziz met Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow to discuss bilateral ties and regional situation.
"Aziz also expressed the hope that Pakistan's further request for defence equipment would also be considered soon as part of our continued defence collaboration," it said.
The Russian Foreign Minister welcomed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's recent meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and expressed the hope that constructive dialogue and improved relations between the two countries would be beneficial for the security and stability of the region.
Lavrov said that?Russia is keen to expand its relations with Pakistan since close cooperation between Pakistan and Russia would not only benefit the two countries but would also help in building stability and prosperity in the region.
Aziz in his response said there was also a consensus in Pakistan for improving relations with Russia.
"The Prime Minister has a new vision for Pakistan. It is based on creating economic partnerships with nations. Pakistan, therefore, wanted to develop a multidimensional relationship with Russia in the fields of trade, energy, infrastructure development, defence and culture," he said.
Both the leaders agreed that the positive role of recent and forthcoming high level exchanges between the two countries would help in moving forward this objective.
During the meeting, situation in Afghanistan, cooperation in the efforts against extremism and terrorism, drugs control, and situation in the Middle East, including Syria and Iraq, were also discussed.
In the course of discussion, it was agreed that the forthcoming Summit meeting of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Dushanbe in September would provide a useful opportunity for discussing the emerging situation in post-2014 Afghanistan.
Lavrov conveyed that Russia fully supported Pakistan's entry into SCO as a full member.
The two agreed that there was considerable scope for cooperation in the field of energy since Pakistan has a large scale programme to overcome its energy crisis and many Russian companies are keen to participate.
PTI