‘Pakistan remains our traditional partner’: Putin meets Shehbaz Sharif in Beijing, calls for deeper ties

Russian leader Vladimir Putin met Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Monday in Beijing and called Pakistan a “traditional partner” of Russia.

Shehbaz and Putin are in Beijing to attend China’s Victory Day parade on Wednesday. Previously, both the leaders attended the SCO Summit in the port city of Tianjin on Sunday and Monday.

In their public remarks ahead of talks, Putin said he valued the relationship with Pakistan and called for the deepening of the relationship.

“Pakistan remains our traditional partner in Asia. We value our relations. I would like to point out that during our previous meeting, we agreed to step up our relations, and indeed, some progress has been made. However, unfortunately, due to a number of objective circumstances, our trade is down albeit by a very small margin. Nevertheless, this is a telling sign for us to address this matter and to work on it,” said Putin, according to an English transcript of his remarks released by the Kremlin.

#RussiaPakistan

🇷🇺🤝🇵🇰 President of Russia Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister of Pakistan @CMShehbaz held a meeting in Beijing.

📹 © Kremlin pic.twitter.com/peptbop5oE

— MFA Russia 🇷🇺 (@mfa_russia) September 2, 2025

Gradually, Russia and Pakistan have ramped up bilateral engagement over the years and both the countries have seen high-level dialogue and visits. In July, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk arrived in Islamabad for talks and called Pakistan and Russia “natural” allies. In June, Syed Tariq Fatemi, a senior aide to Shehbaz, visited Moscow and met Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov as part of Pakistan’s outreach after the India-Pakistan conflict in May.

After the India-Pakistan conflict in May, Russia had endorsed the position of Pakistan and the United States that the conflict stopped with the personal intervention of US President Donald Trump. After a call between Putin and Trump, the Kremlin in June said that the two leaders discussed the “conflict between India and Pakistan which has been halted with the personal involvement of President Trump”.

‘We have been making very serious efforts’: Shehbaz on Pak-Russia ties

Shehbaz said that the two sides had been making “very serious and sincere efforts” to promote the Pakistan-Russia relationship, particularly in the field of trade.

Shehbaz said that Pakistan-Russia trade saw a “spike” last year and noted that Pakistan imported oil from Russia as well.

Shehbaz also mentioned the transport corridor through Central Asia that seeks to link Pakistan and Russia.

“Last year, our trade had a spike. We imported oil from Russia, and that led to an increase in our bilateral trade. Recently we signed protocols in terms of how to promote our cooperation in the field of agriculture, in the field of iron and steel, energy, transport, and the corridor from Belarus, and then Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. I think this is a very important corridor,” said Shehbaz.

After Putin invited Shehbaz to visit Russia in November, Shehbaz thanked the Russian leader and said he would be very happy to be there. He went on to thank the Russian leader for his “very keen commitment” to build the Russia-Pakistan relationship.

Both Pakistan and Russia are staunch partners of China. While China has supported Russia to the hilt in the war on Ukraine, it has also supported Pakistan in its anti-India campaign — the support was such that India’s deputy army chief Lieutenant General Rahul R Singh said that Pakistan was a backdoor adversary in the conflict and India was actually fighting three adversaries, namely Pakistan, China, and Turkey.