MOSCOW: The Russian Foreign Ministry on Tuesday denied the Pakistani media reports about ‘secret negotiations’ between the two countries regarding cooperation on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project.
Reports claiming that the Russian spy chief visited Pakistan in order to inspect the Gwadar port and that Pakistan had formally authorised Russia to join the project – on the spy chief’s request.
“The Pakistani media reports about secret negotiations between Russia and Pakistan on the implementation of projects as part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) are not true to the facts,” the Russian ministry said in a statement.
“Moscow is not discussing the possibility of joining this project [CPEC] with Islamabad,” the statement added.
“Russia-Pakistan trade and economic cooperation has its own inherent value and we intend to strengthen it by implementing business projects including the planned construction of the North-South gas pipeline from Karachi to Lahore – on a bilateral basis,” the statement concluded.
