Experts call for revamping foreign policy

Say PM’s tour of US needs to be reviewed in terms of tangible outcomes

ISLAMABAD: Despite claims of a ‘successful’ tour of the US with smiles all around and warm handshakes, foreign policy experts and practitioners on Wednesday called for a thorough revamp of Pakistan’s foreign policy in general and Islamabad’s relations with its neighbours and Washington in particular.

This was suggested during a seminar on “Pakistan-US Relations: Searching for a Common Ground”. The seminar had been organised by the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) in its office on Wednesday.

Pakistan’s former ambassador to the United States Ashraf Jahangir Qazi said that Islamabad could only achieve its desired foreign policy objectives of it starts looking at its regional and international challenges from a fresh perspective.

As an example, he pointed to Afghanistan where, according to him, Pakistan seems to have regained a central position in the ongoing peace process.

Qazi argued that Islamabad needs a serious rethink of its foreign relations in the context of the new Great Game developing in the Eurasian region.

“Our foreign policy should be conducted in the context of what is going on between China and the US on the one hand and between Pakistan, Afghanistan, India and the US on the other hand,” he said. “Pakistan should further strengthen its strategic ties with China, while we should conduct our ties with Washington such to ensure that the US does not want to or has to harm our interests,” he added.

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Haroon Sharif, the former chairman of the Board of Investment, spoke about the possibilities of building a balanced investment and trade relationship with the US.

He contended that for Prime Minister Imran Khan’s recent visit to the US to be declared as ‘successful’, the official tour needed to have resulted in some tangible economic and financial transaction between the two countries.

“There is no harm in having a transactional relationship with the US as long as transactions help Pakistan financially and economically,” he said.

Former ambassador Ayaz Wazir pointed out that the US has always used Pakistan for its interests in Afghanistan.

“And we have happily served the American interests,” he said, adding that he feared that in the recent trip, Pakistan had once again offered its services for free in Afghanistan.

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Senior defence analyst Major General (retired) Ijaz Hussain Awan welcomed President Donald Trump’s offer to mediate between India and Pakistan on the long-standing Kashmir dispute.

“The only way forward is for third party intervention in the light of the United Nations resolutions on Kashmir because bilateral mechanisms have failed,” he said, pointing out that the resolution of problems over the Indus River waters too was made possible because of third party mediation.

Independent analyst Zahid Hussain said that while the US and Pakistan have a convergence of interests on some issues, there remain huge divergence on many others.

“Overall, the relationship between the two countries largely revolves around Afghanistan where there is renewed convergence in their interests,” he said.

SDPI Executive Director Dr Abid Qaiyum Suleri said that Pakistan’s relations with the US have always been bumpy. He argued that Islamabad needs to enhance the ambit of its ties with Washington beyond war and peace in Afghanistan.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 1^st, 2019.