ISLAMABAD, November 20. /TASS/. Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu and his Pakistani counterpart Khawaja Asif signed a deal on military cooperation on Thursday in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad.

Shoigu said after talks with Pakistan’s defense minister that the agreement is an important step towards strengthening ties between Moscow and Islamabad in the military sphere.

“During the meeting, we agreed that bilateral military cooperation should have a great practical focus and contribute to increasing combat efficiency of our armed forces,” Shoigu said.

Shoigu earlier expressed confidence that the implementation of this agreement will give an additional impetus to all the aspects of Russia-Tajikistan cooperation.

The minister said the sides discussed a range of specific events of particular importance.

This is the first visit by Russia’s defense minister to Pakistan after the collapse of the former Soviet Union. The latest visit took place as far back as 1969, when USSR Defense Minister Andrey Grechko made a trip to the country.

Russia and Pakistan to fight terrorism, drugs together

Russia and Pakistan will pool effort in the struggle against terrorism and drug trafficking with due account of the current situation in Afghanistan and the region as a whole Shoigu said during the visit.

“We shared views on the scope of pressing problems of international and regional security. First of all, this concerns Afghanistan. Our assessments of the situation in that country are mainly close or coincide,” the Russian minister noted.

“We are interested in soonest peaceful settlement of problems amassed here,” he said, adding that easing tensions in the region is one of the priority tasks for the world community.

The two ministers focused on importance of joint effort to fight international terrorism and drug trafficking, Shoigu noted.