Pakistan cannot be isolated

There was a sense of purpose and renewal among the Economic Cooperation Organisation (ECO) leaders when they gathered in Islamabad recently, to participate in the 13^th ECO Summit. The leaders gathered to pledge expansion of trade, connectivity and economic relations in the region. For Pakistan, it was a double celebration as the summit dispelled the negative endeavours of India towards pushing Pakistan into isolation, the plans that fell flat on our neighbour’s face. By exacerbating the propaganda by using the Uri attack as a tool, India only got successful in the cancellation of last year’s Saarc summit. But the good news is that Pakistan cannot be left alone because of its strategic importance and the bright economic future.

This was evident when Pakistan hosted multinational AMAN-2017 naval exercises in which 37 countries took part including the US, China and Russia. The international community is aware of the fact that isolating Pakistan will not be beneficial for their own national interests as it is fast becoming a stronger economy with a vast potential of being a beneficial foreign investment destination. Similarly, by hosting the ECO Summit a positive signal has been sent. Pakistan hosted the high-profile regional summit smoothly. Recently, there is a fresh wave of security threat and the situation deteriorated to the point that a military-led national operation had to be initiated. But the successful conduct of ECO and the PSL final, demonstrated that the state can establish relative calm. With these events being held successfully Pakistan has proved that it is able to deliver on its regional and international hosting responsibilities.

The summit was attended by all 10 member states and the importance of prosperity of the region was emphasised. The theme of the summit was “Connectivity for Regional Prosperity” that focused on cooperation in the fields of trade, energy and transport. It also adopted the Islamabad Declaration and Vision 2025. The declaration calls for development of transport and communication infrastructure, facilitation of trade and investment, promotion of connectivity with other regions, effective use of energy resources and undertaking measures for making the ECO effective and efficient. Other than that the Islamabad Declaration envisages doubling of the current level of intra-ECO trade in the next three to five years through implementation of the ECO Trade Agreement and other ECO trade arrangements.

The plans for enhancing the connectivity in the ECO region are convergent with China’s One-Belt-One-Road project and the CPEC initiative. By the initiation of CPEC, there will be more availability of transit routes for the enhancement of trade among the ECO members. Pakistan has already offered its ports and routes for trade purposes. Pakistan has always sent a message of regional peaceful coexistence and trade. This summit may become a small step towards the establishment of an impressive regional vision. This can only be achieved when meaningful actions are taken by the member states to support the talk of peace and trade.

It was unfortunate that Afghanistan chose to downgrade its participation and showed its grievances towards Pakistan. The ECO was a regional gathering and Pakistan was only a host and this was not the appropriate forum to show the displeasure on the border closure. Afghanistan should quit playing the role of a spoiler at the behest of India, and should rather seek cooperative solutions. This would be beneficial for its own interests because terrorism is a dilemma for both Pakistan and Afghanistan. Both the countries should work together to establish peace and Afghanistan should be more forward-thinking in its approach, instead of pleasing India. Pakistan has proved its worth yet again and dismissed the notion that it can ever be isolated. In fact, the presence of an array of international leaders in Pakistan suggests that some neighbouring countries’ agenda to isolate Pakistan is a total failure and will not go too far.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 13^th, 2017.

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