ISLAMABAD (The Thursday Times) — Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will visit Russia in the first week of December with a large business delegation and hold talks with President Vladimir Putin, sources said.
The prime minister chaired a meeting on Friday to review preparations for the trip, the Express Tribune reported. A large delegation of businessmen will accompany him, and he is expected to address a joint Pakistan-Russia business forum in the Russian capital alongside his bilateral talks with Putin.
Putin invited Shehbaz to Russia when the two leaders met in Beijing in September last year, where both sides said they wanted to deepen ties. Shehbaz will be the second Pakistani prime minister to visit Moscow in recent years, after Imran Khan held talks with Putin in February 2022.
The visit comes as Islamabad balances its relations with major powers amid the US-Iran war, in which Pakistan is acting as a mediator, and as it looks to Russia for energy, trade and investment.
