Dar warns of fragmenting world order

Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar on Tuesday opened the two-day Margalla Dialogue in Islamabad by underscoring the need for furthering multilateralism, promoting geo-economics in the regional context and strengthening the role of United Nations for coping with the challenges of a world faced with erosion of values and increase in unilateral bloc politics.

The theme of the Margalla Dialogue is, "The future of global order: Cooperation or confrontation," organised by Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI).The moot brought together scholars, diplomats, policymakers and academicians from around the world.

IPRI President Lt-Gen (retd) Majid Ehsan, while inaugurating the Dialogue, said that the 6th edition of Margalla Dialogue is an opportunity to look into issues and problems confronted with a world sliding towards multipolarity, and devise measures for cooperation and engagement. He referred to the age of social media where genuine and true information itself has become a dilemma, and moreover, the trends of populism are posing new challenges to the established order.

He talked of 3Ds: de-dollarisation, democratisation and demilitarisation, and said that the world is confronted with new-age mysteries such as climate change and development at par. He pointed out that rules-based order is in decay and that is more than enough to strike a new order for a collective better tomorrow.

Dar said that failing to maintain international peace and security is the biggest challenge and cannot be abandoned half-way.