Islamabad: Pakistan has resolved a 40-year-old trade dispute with Russia by paying USD 93.5 million to Moscow, a news source reported. As per the publication, the said dispute had for long figured as the major reason behind the hampered trade ties of the two countries.
According to the information available, Pakistan owed the aforementioned amount of money to Russia against its exporters’ claims since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Last year, Pakistan’s government authorised its ambassador to Russia to sign the agreement deal. Under the agreement, Pakistan’s government was expected to return USD 93.5 million to Russia within 90 days of the deal signing and clear unresolved exporters’ claims of USD 23.8 million as per the agreements reached in October 2016 and December 2017.
Previously, Moscow had shown interest in investing USD 8 billion in Pakistan’s energy sector and Pakistan Steel Mills; but according to the Russian laws, the country could not invest in countries with which it had trade disputes. As per the source, an official of the Ministry of Commerce (MoC) stated that the resolution of the long-standing dispute would hopefully improve trade relations between the two countries, and pave the way for billions of dollars’ worth of investment from Russian investors in Pakistan.
