We want nothing but peace from neighbours: Khar

Says Pakistan will not accept India’s ‘supremacy’ in the region.

LAHORE:

Pakistan expects nothing but peace from its neighbours but will not accept India’s supremacy in the region, newly-appointed Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar has said.

“Pakistan will not accept India’s supremacy in the region. Through the pursuance of an effective foreign policy, we will maintain [our] strategic importance in the region,” she told reporters at the Lahore airport upon her return from Bali, Indonesia where she represented Pakistan at the Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean) summit.

When asked about US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s statement during her India visit, she said that the US might want India to play a greater role but the reality is a lot different. “Pakistan’s stance is clear. Prime Minister Gilani has said that if the US recognises India’s role then it also recognises Pakistan’s,” she said, urging that the American statement must be taken with a pragmatic approach.

“Pakistan is a strategically-important country and no one, including the US, China or even India, want to play down its role. Thus, we should remain positive,” Khar said.

Speaking about her 45-minute meeting with Clinton on the sidelines of the Asean summit, Khar said that they both agreed that the countries need to get their bilateral relations back on track. “Pakistan and US have an important relationship and it is in our best national interest to continue an important working relationship with the US,” she said.

She said that the countries have strategic convergence despite the fact that a difference of opinion has arisen on Pakistan’s operational issues. “We emphasised that reservations regarding each other must be addressed and that these reservations are not a one-way street,” she said.

Speaking about the Asean summit, her first assignment as Pakistan’s foreign minister, she said that the forum emphasised that Pakistan needs the world’s support as it is at the forefront on the war against terrorism. Khar said she met the Chinese foreign minister as well.

When asked about the arrest of Dr Ghulam Nabi Fai in the US, she said that although Fai is an American citizen, it is a fact that he was fighting for the Kashmir cause. “As far as we know, Fai has worked within limitations and very systematically for the Kashmir cause and he has a global standing on the Kashmir issue,” she said. Speaking about his international recognition, she said that she had once met with him in Astana at a summit of the Organisation of Islamic Countries where he had come to attend a meeting of a special group on the Kashmir issue.

Meanwhile, on the invitation of the Pakistani High Commissioner to India, the All-Parties Hurriyet Conference chairperson Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, veteran Kashmiri leader Syed Ali Geelani and other pro-liberation leaders will be travelling to New Delhi to meet Khar while she is in the Indian capital for the Indo-Pak foreign-ministerial level dialogue. Geelani is scheduled to leave for Delhi from Srinagar on Monday, while Mirwaiz will leave on Tuesday.

(WITH ADDITIONAL INPUT FROM APP)

Published in The Express Tribune, July 25^th,  2011.