Russia, Pakistan Leaders Pledge Common Front on Terror

Russia and Pakistan Thursday pledged to boost economic ties and coordinate efforts to fight terror as the Kremlin welcomed the Pakistani president for a key visit after the killing of Osama bin Laden.

Asif Ali Zardari was making the first official visit by a Pakistani leader since the fall of the Soviet Union.

"We are interested in coordinating our efforts on the international arena. It is obvious that our countries are facing absolutely the same threat, I mean international terrorism," Russian President Dmitry Medvedev told Zardari at the Kremlin.

"We have to do everything so that we could jointly counter this main evil of the 21st century," Medvedev said in comments released by the Kremlin.

Russia has for years been struggling to root out a Muslim insurgency in the North Caucasus following two wars with separatists in Chechnya after the fall of the Soviet Union. The Kremlin says Caucasus militants receive support from abroad.

Zardari, who kicked off his three-day trip to Russia on Wednesday, expressed hope his historic visit would help deepen ties between the two countries which share a complicated history.

"Our countries are very close neighbors. We are located in the same region. And although we do not share borders our hearts beat in unison," Zardari said.

"The time has come to acknowledge the importance of our countries for each other and the importance of regional cooperation and to also ramp up economic and political joint work," he said.

Zardari's father-in-law, late prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, was the country's last leader to make an official visit to Russia when he traveled here in Soviet times, the Pakistani president said.

The two leaders oversaw the signing of several framework agreements on cooperation including in energy and agriculture and adopted a joint declaration highlighting the importance of tighter economic cooperation.

"Projects of regional development can secure prosperity for all the peoples in the region," said the declaration, adding it supported Russian companies willing to pursue economic, infrastructure and banking projects in Pakistan.

Those projects would include plans by gas giant Gazprom to develop gas fields in Pakistan, the declaration said, while Tyazhpromexport, part of state conglomerate Russian Technologies, would help modernize a metals plant in Karachi.

Vedomosti business daily, citing a source close to the management of Russian Technologies, said on Wednesday that the two countries were expected to agree on a $540 million deal for Pakistan to upgrade the Soviet-built Karachi-based Pakistan Steel.

A Kremlin spokesman could not say Thursday whether the loan was discussed during the talks.

The Kremlin also said Zardari supported a plan for Russia to join a project to build a gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to Pakistan and India via Afghanistan.

The Russian trip is Zardari's first high-profile visit abroad since al-Qaida chief bin Laden, the world's most wanted man, was killed in a raid by U.S. forces on a compound in Abbottabad in Pakistan.

The Kremlin hailed the death of bin Laden as a "serious success ... in the war against international terrorism" but Pakistan has expressed fury that U.S. forces carried out the raid without informing Islamabad first.

Moscow suggested Washington had the right to kill bin Laden in Pakistan, saying the U.N. Security Council recognized the right to self-defense.

Moscow is not usually seen as an ally of Islamabad, not least because of its historically close ties to Pakistan's traditional foe India.