Relations with India ‘complicated’: FM

Bilawal denounces arch rival’s racist actions in IIOJK

UNITED NATIONS:

Denouncing India’s racist actions in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has said “there is little scope of dialogue” with their arch rival neighbour, terming the relationship as “particularly complicated.”

Speaking at a presser on Thursday at the UN Headquarters in New York, before his departure to Islamabad, the FM said, “As far as the question of our relationship with India is concerned, it is particularly complicated” by New Delhi’s actions in Kashmir – firstly the August 5, 2019 decision to unilaterally annex IIOJK and now the delimitation commission move aimed at turning the disputed state’s Muslim majority into a minority.

Responding to a question, the foreign minister said, “Having said that, we are very cognizant of the fact that economic activity, dialogue, diplomacy are ultimately the ways and means for countries to engage with each other and resolve disputes,” adding, “I just note that, particularly at the moment, given this aggressive, hostile behaviour, the practical space for that happening is very limited.”

The PPP chairman was visiting the UN for a ministerial meeting on food security and met on the sidelines on Wednesday, among others, with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Replying to another question, FM Bilawal said he would like to pivot away from a single-issue transactional relationship with the United States as he seeks to repair ties with Washington.

“Our relationship with the United States has been coloured too much by the geopolitical context in our region, and particularly by the events and circumstances in Afghanistan,” the foreign minister said a day after meeting the US secretary of state. “We would like to pivot away from a transactional relationship, a one-point agenda relationship, to a more broad-based relationship with a particular emphasis on trade.”

Bilawal went on to say, “We seek to have a more broad-based relationship that encompasses all the dynamics of our friendship which would have, obviously, a political component, a people-to-people component, and the defence component, but most importantly, the economic component as far as the Biden administration is concerned.”

Citing his recent interactions with Blinken, he expressed hopes to pursue a range of bilateral initiatives with his US counterparts aimed at exploring “untapped opportunity” for students, entrepreneurs, and other sectors of both societies to interact with one another.

US State Department spokesperson Ned Price said in a statement on Wednesday after Blinken and FM Bilawal met that the two officials affirmed a “shared desire for a strong and prosperous bilateral relationship.”

The foreign minister also said he was not concerned about competing with neighboring India when it came to ties with Washington.

“Pakistan is not insecure about our relationship with the United States and we believe that the world is big enough for both Pakistan and India to exist,” he said.

To a question pertaining to the domestic political situation, Bilawal said “on the international front, we have a foreign policy vacuum. On the economic front, we have an economic catastrophe staring at us in the face, and we have a highly polarized political society.

“We need to now do the work of the government, work together to take the difficult decisions and implement the necessary reforms so we can move forward. And I believe, as long as we do that, and as long as we conduct ourselves in that way, then there is very little to challenge the new government and this extensive coalition. But if we fail to do our own job, then we will face many challenges.” APP