ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s finance minister Ishaq Dar said on Thursday the United States had recognized his country’s right to buy discounted Russian oil, adding the government had instructed relevant officials to negotiate a favorable procurement deal with Moscow.
Dar recently returned from Washington where he spent a few days to attend the annual International Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings. During this period, he also interacted with senior US officials to discuss the economic situation of Pakistan in the wake of the recent floods.
“The US authorities have agreed and said they have no objection if [Pakistan] wants to buy [discounted Russian oil],” he told Aaj News television channel in an interview. “They are trying to bring a pricing mechanism within the next month in which G7 is playing a major role. It will suggest a price cap and stop nations from going over it while negotiating [a deal].”
Pakistan is a net importer of petroleum products that has been striving to buy cheap Russian oil for a while. The finance minister said it had now cleared the hurdle which stood in its way of achieving that objective.
He informed the government had asked relevant ministers to negotiate with Russia.
Asked about the country’s dwindling foreign exchange reserves, Dar said he was working with this team to identify the country’s financial needs and projections for the next 12 months to put in place all that was required to achieve them.
He also informed the government was anticipating to get $1.5 billion from the Asian Development Bank in the next week.
The finance minister reiterated that Pakistan’s national currency should not go beyond Rs200 against the US dollar while acknowledging that the greenback was smuggled to neighboring Afghanistan which needed to be prevented by the state.
