The Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, Valery Gerasimov, met with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of Pakistan, Nadim Raza, in Moscow on Friday. The military leaders spoke about bilateral military cooperation.
"Pakistan is one of the few countries with which military cooperation is very active this year, despite the difficult epidemiological situation," Gerasimov said. He expressed gratitude to his colleague for the traditionally high Pakistani representation in the events organized by the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation in 2021. Gerasimov also thanked the Pakistani guest for his personal participation in the active phase of the military anti-terrorist command and staff exercise "Peace Mission-2021" of the SCO member states and sending a national military contingent to these joint maneuvers.
The Chief of the Russian General Staff emphasized the successful cooperation between the two countries in the naval field. He recalled that during the fifth round of Russian-Pakistani staff talks, experts discussed the prospects for naval cooperation in St. Petersburg in detail. It is known that a detachment of ships of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation participated in the multinational naval exercise "AMAN-2021", the bilateral naval maneuvers "Arabian Monsoon-2021" and the anti-piracy exercise in the Gulf of Aden. And the crew of the Pakistan Navy frigate "Zulfikar" participated in the main naval parade in St. Petersburg.
During the conversation, Gerasimov and his Pakistani counterpart also exchanged views on the situation in Afghanistan.
A day earlier, the chief of the Russian General Staff held bilateral meetings with colleagues from India and China. The talks were held as part of the main stage of the SCO countries ' anti-terrorist exercises "Peace Mission-2021", held at the Donguz training ground in the Orenburg Region. In a conversation with the chief of the Joint Staff of the Central Military Council of the People's Republic of China, Colonel-General Li Zocheng, Gerasimov expressed gratitude for the traditionally high Chinese representation in the events organized by the Russian Defense Ministry in 2021. A similar assessment of the Russian-Indian military cooperation was given at the meeting of the Russian general with the Chief of Staff of the Indian Armed Forces, Bipin Rawat.
Yuri Gavrilov