Pakistan PM Imran Khan to visit Russia on President Putin's invitation

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan will attend a key economic forum to be held in Russia in September, sources said on Saturday. Khan has accepted the Russian president's invitation, which was extended last month in a conversation between the two leaders on the side lines of the 19th Meeting of the Council of the Heads of State (CHS) of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Bishkek.

The EEF is scheduled to be held from September 4 to 6 in Vladivostok.   

Putin will be the guest of honour at the EEF and several world leaders are expected to attend the moot which is held annually since 2015 in the same city.   

Launched by Russia, the EEF serves as a platform for discussion on important issues in global economy, regional integration and development.

The forum seeks to encourage foreign investment in the Russian Far East.

Imran Khan also is scheduled to visit the US on a maiden trip on July 20 during which he would face-to-face talks with US President Donald Trump, according to a media report. Khan, would have first face-to-face talks with US President Donald Trump, the Express Tribune reported.

The prime minister would begin his five-day trip from July 20, official sources confirmed to the paper on Friday.

The trip, originally planned in June, was postponed because of the prime minister’s prior domestic engagements, especially due to federal budget 2019.

Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Thursday told reporters that a meeting between Prime Minister Khan and Trump was expected soon. He, however, did not share the date of the visit.

Qureshi said the prime minister would be visiting Washington on the invitation of President Trump, who wanted to discuss important regional issues.

This would be the first high-level engagement between the two countries under the Trump administration’s tenure, and comes at a time when talks between the US and Afghan Taliban are thought to have entered decisive phase.

Relations between Pakistan and the US have remained tense during the Trump’s tenure. The US president has publicly said that Pakistan has given us “nothing but lies and deceit” and also suspended security and other assistance for backing terror groups.