I. SERENKO Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences On May 1, 1948, the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of the USSR and Pakistan exchanged notes on the establishment of diplomatic relations and the establishment of representative offices with the rank of embassies. This event put both countries on the path of establishing bilateral political and foreign economic ties, opened up opportunities and prospects for their cooperation. Due to historical circumstances, Pakistan's relations with the Soviet Union, and then with Russia as its legal successor, were rather unstable, marked by ups and downs. The mutual distrust and tension that took place in relations between the two states were caused by the bipolarity that existed in the world at that time, the military-political confrontation between the two socio-economic systems. After the formation of the independent State of Pakistan in 1947, the establishment of diplomatic relations with the USSR progressed slowly. Initially, the Pakistani leadership informed Moscow that Pakistan's interests in the USSR would be represented by the former metropolis - Great Britain. Despite the Soviet proposal to establish diplomatic relations, as well as certain foreign policy efforts by Moscow to recognize the Pakistani state in the international arena*, the Pakistani side was clearly in no hurry to formalize bilateral relations. For the first time, Islamabad's readiness to establish diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union was expressed in April 1948 by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan, Zafrullah Khan, during his meeting in New York with the First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the USSR, A. A. Gromyko. Despite the agreements reached, the process of finalizing official diplomatic relations was delayed. As a result, the first ambassador of Pakistan to the USSR, Sh. Qureshi presented his credentials only on December 30, 1949, and the first Soviet Ambassador to Pakistan, A. G. Stetsenko, took up his duties even later - in Ma ... Read more