Pak. yet to address Russia's concerns: Putin aide

By Vladimir Radyuhin

MOSCOW, JUNE 12. Russia does not see any meaningful shift in Pakistan's stand on issues that have been dogging bilateral relations, a Kremlin spokesman has said.

``I can't say there has been any major change in Pakistan's position on issues of concern to Russia,'' said Mr. Sergei Yastrzhembsky, head of the Kremlin's Information Department, recalling his visit to Islamabad last September as special envoy of the Russian President, Mr. Vladimir Putin.

Mr. Putin had sent his emissary to Pakistan at the request of the military ruler, General Pervez Musharraf, to check out on his sincerity in wishing for better relations with the new leadership in Russia during their brief meeting on the sidelines of the United Nations millennium summit in New York. Mr. Yastrzhembsky's task was to spell out Moscow's conditions for improving ties with Islamabad.

``I conveyed to the Pakistani leadership Russia's concern over Pakistan's support for the Taliban, the training of Chechen terrorists at Taliban camps and their visits to Pakistan,'' Mr. Yastrzhembsky said. He denied passing on an invitation to Gen. Musharraf to visit Moscow or conveying Mr. Putin's readiness to go to Islamabad. Mr. Yastrzhembsky also refuted Gen. Musharraf's claim in a recent interview to a Russian daily that he had sought Islamabad's help in establishing contact with the Taliban.

After the visit, the envoy expressed ``cautious optimism'' about better relations with Pakistan. However, eight months later, he says little has changed.

``The only change is that Pakistan has perhaps taken a more articulate position on Chechnya, and that too at the level of political declarations,'' the Kremlin spokesman said. ``There has been no shift on any other issues.''

Russia's relations with Pakistan remain at a low ebb. Moscow has put in cold storage a political treaty with Pakistan initialled way back in 1993 and is dragging its feet over establishing an inter-governmental economic and trade commission agreed during the 1999 visit to Moscow by the then Pakistani Prime Minister, Mr. Nawaz Sharif. In a recent interview to the Izvestia daily, Gen. Musharraf complained that Russia was pursuing pro-India policies and had refused to sell SU-30 planes or any other arms to Pakistan.

Last week, Mr. Putin reiterated Russia's unswerving support to India on Kashmir to the visiting Defence and External Affairs Minister, Mr. Jaswant Singh, while Mr. Putin's security adviser, Mr. Vladimir Rushailo, recently called for stepping up international pressure on Islamabad to stop its support for the ``terrorism-spouting'' Taliban regime.

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Section  : International
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