Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan will embark on a two-day trip to Russia on Wednesday. It is unclear whether talks regarding the Ukraine crisis will come up or not. Pakistan has not made any condemnation of the Russian recognition of the so-called republics of Donetsk and Luhansk and called for peace.
This is the first time in more than two decades that a Pakistan prime minister is visiting Moscow. The Pakistan foreign office in a statement said that Putin and Imran will review the entire array of bilateral relations between both nations. It also highlighted that Imran Khan lauded Putin’s highlighting Islamophobia and insults to Islamic religious figures.
“They will also have wide-ranging exchange of views on major regional and international issues, including Islamophobia and situation in Afghanistan,” the statement from the Pakistan foreign office further added.
Khan said that Putin ‘was the first Western leader’ who gave out an emphatic statement against insulting Prophet Muhammad. “He is the first Western leader to show empathy and sensitivity to Muslim sentiment for their beloved Prophet (PBUH),” Khan was quoted as saying by news agency Dawn. Imran Khan, however, failed to notice that Russia lies to its north rather than west and lynchings in Pakistan for so-called blasphemy against religion has tarnished its international reputation and has also left foreign citizens unsafe.
Imran Khan’s visit to Russia will be closely watched as Pakistan loses credibility to its friends in the west for sponsoring terrorism Indian Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and and smuggling narcotics into the states of Punjab, Rajasthan and Gujarat. Russia is unlikely to announce major economic or defense deals to avoid upsetting India with whom it has deep historical relations.
Russia and Pakistan were once bitter rivals as it worked with the US during the Soviet-Afghan war to train Taliban and other insurgents in fighting the Soviet forces.
The trip can also be seen as a move to steer Pakistan from the west which has accused the deep state of participating in covert operations against the United States helping it destabilise the democratically-elected government in Afghanistan and helping the Taliban regime launch attacks on US forces.
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