NEW YORK: Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has asserted that Pakistan wanted to take its bilateral ties beyond counter-terrorism and Afghanistan, while keeping them both among the priorities.
“We have all the ingredients in place to build a more substantive and broad based relationship that is anchored in trade, investment, and people-to-people linkages,” the foreign minister said in a conversation at Council on Foreign Relations on Tuesday.
The event was attended by a large number of analysts and members from the think tank community as well as media persons. It was the first physical session at the CFR after a hiatus of 18 months and Foreign Minister Qureshi was the first guest invited to the first such event held both physically and virtually.
The foreign minister pointed out that the US was still Pakistan’s largest export market and a major source of foreign remittances. He said the talented young Pakistanis continue to gravitate towards American college campuses and Silicon Valley incubators.
“Finally, we have a large and politically engaged Pakistani American community that is a bridge between our two countries”, FM Qureshi added.
He said Pak-US engagement had often been narrowly framed, dictated either by short-term security interests or the imperative to deal with a common challenge. “We want to break out of this pattern,” he remarked.
The foreign minister told the gathering that as Pakistan shifted its focus towards “geo-economics,” the country wanted to leverage its connectivity infrastructure—including the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor—to enhance regional trade and economic integration.
The foreign minister said Pakistan being an over 220 million people market, Pakistan’s young but exciting start-up tech culture showcased its untapped investment potential. “Ultimately, an economically strong Pakistan can be an anchor of stability in a region that has suffered through 40 years of war in Afghanistan”, he remarked.
Referring to the regional situation, he told the gathering that after assuming the office, Prime Minister Imran Khan offered that he would take “two steps” towards peace if India took one.
“Our message was simple: Pakistan and India should be fighting poverty instead of each other. Unfortunately, India not only spurned our overtures for peace but took actions in Occupied Jammu and Kashmir that have pushed South Asia into a blind alley,” he remarked.
He recalled that Imran Khan had come to the UN two years ago and warned that India’s annexation of the disputed territory of Jammu and Kashmir would not silence the Kashmiri people’s cry for self-determination—no matter what level of violence and suppression India unleashes against the Kashmiris.
He said Pakistan remained committed to finding a peaceful solution to the Jammu and Kashmir dispute, the main obstacle to lasting peace and stability in the region. He said it was up to India to break the impasse and create conditions for the resumption of meaningful dialogue with Pakistan.
