MOSCOW: Chief of the Russian General Staff, First Deputy Defense Minister Army General Valery Gerasimov held a meeting with Chairman of the Pakistani Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee General Nadeem Raza to discuss bilateral military cooperation here on Friday. “Pakistan is one of the few countries with which military cooperation is developing very actively this year, despite the complex epidemiological situation,” Gerasimov stressed.

The chief of the Russian General Staff said he was grateful for Pakistan’s traditional high-level representation in measures organized by Russia’s Defense Ministry in 2021. He also thanked his Pakistani counterpart for his personal participation in the active phase of the Peace Mission 2021 counter-terror command and staff drills of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and for sending the national military contingent to the maneuvers.

Russia’s military chief also highlighted successful bilateral naval interaction. As Gerasimov pointed out, experts discussed in detail the prospects of both navies’ cooperation in the course of the fifth round of Russian-Pakistani staff negotiations in St. Petersburg. A naval group of the Russian Black Sea Fleet participated in the Aman 2021 multinational naval exercise, the Arabian Monsoon 2021 bilateral naval drills and anti-piracy maneuvers in the Gulf of Aden. The Pakistani Navy’s frigate Zulfiquar participated in Russia’s Main Naval Parade in St. Petersburg, the chief of the Russian General Staff recalled. During their talk, the Russian and Pakistani military chiefs also held a substantive exchange of opinions on the situation in Afghanistan.

On September 23, the chief of the Russian General Staff held bilateral meetings with his Indian and Chinese counterparts. The talks were held as part of the active phase of the SCO’s Peace Mission 2021 counter-terror drills that ran at the Donguz training ground in the Orenburg region in the Urals.