ISLAMABAD: The PakistanRussia Inter-Governmental Commission (IGC) will be meeting next week for a 4-day deliberation for promotion of bilateral trade and businesses as the two countries leave behind over four decades of mistrust and business disputes.

An official said the two countries have also finalised a settlement of a 15-year trade dispute involving Pakistan`s private businesses claims of around $124 million against Russians and their counter claims of a relatively lower amount.

`The government of Pakistan has played a key role in the dispute and the Pakistani businessmen had agreed to a renegotiated settlement`, he said without elaborating.On Thursday, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar chaired the preparatory meeting for the upcoming sessions and was given a detailed run down of the agenda and related issues by ministries and divisions.

An official statement said the minister reviewed the implementation status of the decisions taken during the previous round of bilateral dialogue. The participants shared the proposals for enhancement of bilateral cooperation between Pakistan and Russian Federation.

The statement said the minister expressed his satisfaction with the progress made since the last IGC meeting and directed ministries concerned for making the upcoming IGC session productive and fruitful.

The four-day session would cover areas of trade, economic, scientific and technical cooperation. It will beco-chaired by the finance minister and Director of the Federal Drug Control Service of the Russian Federation Victor Petrovich Ivanov.

Economic and trade relations between Islamabad and Moscow have remained severely affected for about five decades because of cold war tensions, even though Pakistan`s two major ventures the Pakistan Steel Mills and largest hydrocarbon producer Oil and Gas Development Company came into being with financial and technical support of the erstwhile Soviet Union in the 1960s.

The two sides have been cosying up over a couple of years and have signed a few memoranda of understanding in recent weeks enabling Russian energy firms to enter Pakistan`s oil and gas exploration and production sectors through government-to-government contracts.