‘Business must cooperate’: Russia seeks to double $1.8 billion trade with Pakistan
KARACHI: Russia seeks to double the volume of its bilateral trade with Pakistan, Russian Consul-General Andrey V. Federov said this week, amid a thaw in Moscow-Islamabad ties.
Russia and Pakistan, once Cold War rivals, have strengthened ties in recent years, with Islamabad purchasing discounted Russian crude oil and liquefied petroleum gas in 2023 and Moscow now planning to build a new steel mill in Karachi.
The two countries traded goods and services worth $236 million from July 2024 till May 2025, compared with $1.04 billion in the same period last year, according to Pakistani central bank data. The volume of their trade rose more than 100 percent to $1.81 billion from July 2023 till June 2024, when Pakistan was facing dollar shortages and imported discounted crude oil from Russia, marking a shift from its traditional reliance on Middle Eastern suppliers.
In an interview with Arab News, Federov said this volume can be boosted as the two countries have started implementing the decisions of the 9th meeting of Russia-Pakistan Intergovernmental Commission, held in December, in which they agreed on a protocol for cooperation in the fields of trade, finance, energy, industry and agriculture, transport and infrastructure, business and finance, and science and technology.
“In last five years it (bilateral trade) was duplicated. Now we have one billion US dollars [of trade volume],” the Russian consul-general said, adding that the Russia-Pakistan trade turnover had showed 50 percent growth in the last five years. “My idea [is] that we can duplicate it once again during my staying here in Karachi.”
Federov didn’t say when his term is going to end.
Moscow could provide machinery, fertilizers, oil and gas, and some lentils and grains as part of agricultural exchange with Pakistan, according to the diplomat. Islamabad could in return supply sports goods, surgical instruments, textiles, pharmacy and kinnows that are “very, very famous” in Russia.
“Some of the Russian leading agriculture companies are ready to work with Pakistan,” he said. “There are a lot of things… we can exchange.”
Federov said Moscow and Islamabad were working to “create a bridge” which would stand for decades and that the bilateral trade would be sustained.
“It won’t be affected by any political issues. Business must cooperate. Sorry for using this word must, but I insist that business must cooperate,” he said.
Another area in which Moscow could help Pakistan was information technology (IT), according to the diplomat. Russia has a very good experience in information security, smart cities and e-government that make life of people much easier.
Pakistan’s National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) could also assist Russia in data documentation as the South Asian had a “very good experience in this sphere.”
“World is not easy right now, and there are, as I said, a lot of spheres. We can share our experience and Pakistan also,” Federov said.
“We were together.”
Besides economy and trade, Russia and Pakistan saw their interests converging on the issue of last month’s Iran-Israel conflict. Together with China, the two countries co-sponsored a resolution in the United Nations, calling for an immediate ceasefire in the Middle East after the conflict killed hundreds on both sides.
“We were together the co-sponsors of the UN resolution on Iran situation,” the Russian envoy said. “Our relations are very close, and we are working hard on many international issues together.”
Putin last month interacted with the leaders of Iran, Israel and Pakistan to end the conflict.
“Maybe some, some of the countries are not satisfied with our role, and they want to take part of one side or another side,” the consul-general said, in an apparent reference to the United States (US) which sided with Israel and bombed Iran’s nuclear facilities on June 22 before announcing a ceasefire.
Federov said Moscow was “not satisfied” with Israel’s behavior in the region.
“But, also, I should say that we have good contacts also not only with Iran and Pakistan. We have good contacts with Israel,” he said. “We do not break our relations with Israel.”
Pakistan and Russia are members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), a Eurasian political, economic and security organization, and have had sustained high-level interactions and institutional mechanisms.
Federov said the top leadership of Pakistan and Russia had been actively interacting at different international diplomatic forums almost every year.
“Both sides realized that we cannot live without [support from] each other,” he said.
Asked about Putin’s long-pending visit to Pakistan, Federov said: “We are all working on that, but we do not know the plans of the president.”