Rejuvenating Pakistan-Russia Relations: Discernable Trends and Future

Abstract

Amid changing geopolitical and geostrategic milieu along with the evolving inter-regional economic prospects and emerging threats to the regional stability, high-level bilateral engagements bring Russia and Pakistan to begin a new era of relationship. The institutional framework between the two countries facilitates them adequately to collaborate in the fields of defence, trade, investment, economy, science, technology, agriculture, education and culture. In the backdrop of situation in Afghanistan, the Indian tilt towards the West and other regional developments led to renewed bilateral relations between Russia and Pakistan. It is imperative that this renewed relationship between both the countries must be viewed on the strategic and regional canvas. Apparently, no major obstacles restrict them to improve their multi-dimensional relations but certain factors may lead to slow down their pace of growth, which needs to be unearthed through critical lens. This paper intends to analyse the recent improvements in Pak-Russia relations in terms of its viability, the prospects of cooperation, current and discernible challenges for trade and investment and other key factors involved in this relation in a descriptive mannaer.