Pakistan and Russia have reiterated commitment to expand trade and economic ties, besides enhancing regional connectivity to strengthen bilateral relations.

The commitment has been expressed during a meeting between President Asif Ali Zardari and the visiting Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk in Islamabad today.

Welcoming the Russian deputy prime minister, the president stressed the importance of exploring possibilities for barter trade, in addition to improving connectivity to strengthen economic relations between the two nations.

He called for easing visa regulations and increasing connectivity through railways and direct flights to facilitate and enhance peopletopeople and businesstobusiness contacts.

On his part, Alexei Overchuk said that Russia was looking forward to improving cooperation with Pakistan in food security, science and technology, education, connectivity and railways.

He said that the upcoming visit of the Russian Prime Minister to Pakistan would provide another opportunity to further strengthen bilateral relations.