Pakistan is all set to finalize a deal with Russia to buy Mi-35 attack choppers, a sign of increasing defence ties between the Cold War-era adversaries. The deal is believed to be signed after the conclusion of Army chief General Raheel Sharif’s three-day visit to Moscow. Pakistan had been pursuing the helicopter purchase deal since 2009.

The two countries had signed a bilateral defence cooperation agreement aimed at strengthening military-to- military relations in November last year. The deal had to be followed by another ‘technical cooperation agreement’ to pave the way for sale of defence equipment to Pakistan. On the last day of his Moscow visit, General Sharif yesterday attended a meeting on the proposed technical accord.

Relations between the Pakistan and Russia are improving after 40-year of hostility during the Cold War in which Pakistan was in the anti-Soviet Union camp and had been instrumental in the Soviet pullout from Afghanistan in 1980s.