Chief of Army Staff General Waker-uz-Zaman returned home yesterday after holding wide-ranging discussions on defence cooperation, training exchange, regional security, and joint military initiatives during his official visits to Russia and Croatia.

During the tour, the army chief met top military and civilian officials, including Russia's deputy defence minister, the chief of the Russian army, and the chief of the Croatian armed forces, said the Inter-Services Public Relations in a release.

According to the ISPR notification, Waker met Russian Deputy Defence Minister General A Fomin on April 7. They discussed matters of mutual interest, including military-to-military cooperation, training support, bilateral relations, mutual confidence-building, skilled manpower export to Russia, higher education, regional security, and prospects for joint training.

The next day, he paid a courtesy call on General Oleg Salyukov, chief of the Russian army. Their discussions focused on future plans for defence cooperation agreements, training assistance, trainee exchanges between military institutions, and joint training initiatives.

The army chief also held a meeting with the Director General of Russia's state nuclear agency ROSATOM Alexey Likhachev where they discussed the timely completion of the physical security infrastructure for the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant and integrating it with the national grid.
Waker also met senior officials from Rostec and Rosoboronexport and held discussions on enhancing the pace and efficiency of defence exchanges between the two nations, according to the ISPR notification.
On April 10, during his visit to Croatia, the army chief met with Lt Gen Tihomir Kundid, chief of the Croatian armed forces.