Pakistan on Friday defended Prime Minister Imran Khan’s visit to Russia against the backdrop of the Ukraine crisis, as the foreign minister said the government was convinced that the decision to go ahead with the trip was correct and it helped increase the country’s ‘diplomatic space’.

Speaking at a news conference here after returning from Moscow, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi also revealed that the Biden administration had approached Pakistan before the prime minister’s visit to Russia.

However, he said Pakistan had shared its perspective and objectives of the visit with the United States and went ahead with the visit as planned.

It is believed that the United States through its senior official asked Pakistan to rethink the decision of visiting Russia given the unfolding situation with regards to Ukraine.

Qureshi also confirmed that before leaving for Moscow, the government had conducted in-house consultations inviting retired diplomats and other concerned people to decide whether the prime minister should visit Moscow or not.