Islamabad: On Wednesday, Russia said it would back Pakistan’s membership in BRICS as it and Pakistan resolved to enhance their cooperation in trade and cultural ties.

We are happy that Pakistan has applied (for membership) as a friendly organization one can name BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. On this, we will stand,” Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk said at a press conference after the talks with the Pakistani counterpart and the Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar.

As we have observed in the past year, there is a desire for a more extensive open development of BRICS, and states from all over the world are interested in becoming its members, “Overchuk said as quoted by Russia’s state-owned TASS news agency. The BRICS was established in 200 by Bra. 

RICS has been in existence since 2006 and was formed by a group of economies comprising Brazil, Russia, India, and China, and later South Africa joined in 2011. Some of the countries joined the military alliance on the 1st of January, 2024. These include Egypt, Iran, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Ethiopia.

Speaking at the press conference, the Deputy Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister of Pakistan, Makhdoom Qureshi Dar, said the talks with his Russian counterpart emphasized the possibilities of cooperation in the sphere of the economy.

He informed the audience that last year, the Pakistan-Russian bilateral trade turnover amounted to a billion USD and added that the main idea of respective countries’ cooperation was the further increase of trade relations by solving the problem of logistics and other related issues.

He said that there is a great opportunity for energy cooperation with Russia, and Pakistan also wants to work on connectivity projects, including the construction of rail and road links between Pakistan and Russia.

Dar also said that Pakistan considers Russia to be an actor in the West, South, and Central Asia, and enhancing productive relations with Russia has been an important foreign policy objective for Pakistan.

He said Islamabad desires to further enhance the cooperation with Moscow in pursuit of the shared desire of the two countries for the restoration of peace and stability in Afghanistan.

He also referred to Russia’s historically good relations with the Muslim world and its position on the Palestine conflict, stating that Pakistan valued Russia’s stand that freedom of speech should not be an excuse to offend a holy.