IBNS: Amid a diplomatic row with the US, Pakistan Finance Minister Ishaq Dar has said that the country wants to import fuel from Russia but at the same rate supplied to neighboring India, media reports said.
Dar made the remarks during his official visit to the United States.
The newly-appointed finance minister of Pakistan claimed that the west would not have a problem with Pakistan importing discounted fuel from Russia despite the sanctions imposed on it over the Ukraine War as the Southasian nation has been severely hit by devastating floods.
The minister said that he has held 58 meetings with the heads of international financial institutions, the US, Saudi Arabia and other countries’ authorities during his four-day stay in Washington.
Pakistan is now staring at a possible food crisis owing to low output in the upcoming Rabi season, as farmers are likely to look out for alternative crops due to low-profit margins, according to a media report.
In the aftermath of the unprecedented floods, Pakistan is now looking to buy wheat from Russia.
“The two technical sides are already discussing that. We want to procure wheat from Russia,” Pakistani Ambassador to Moscow Shafqat Ali Khan said in an interview with the news agency TASS.
He also stressed that Pakistan considers Russia a long-term and stable partner for food supply amid crisis situations and earlier there were other countries.
Pakistan’s talks on wheat procurement and fuel supply from Russia come after US President Joe Biden described the country as “one of the most dangerous nations” in the world which holds “nuclear weapons without any cohesion.”
Biden’s remark irked Pakistan and triggered a major diplomatic row with Islamabad summoning US envoy Donald Blome to the foreign office in Islamabad to be handed a ‘demarche’ in protest against the American President’s statement.
In the US, Pakistan minister Dar told reporters that the country suffered losses to the tune of USD 32.40 billion, citing a joint report presented by the United Nations Development Programme, Asian Development Bank, and the World Bank authorities on the scale of loss due to the floods.
“More than $16 billion is needed by Pakistan for the rehabilitation work,” the Pak minister said, citing the report.
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