‘Trade with all’: Foreign policy should reflect domestic realities

Foreign Policy Analyst former ambassador BA Malik argued that foreign policy stands on the domestic situation of any country. He added that the domestic situation of Pakistan demanded greater regional integration for the prosperity of its people. While appreciating President Zardari’s statement on having trade relations with all countries, he said, “There is no room for exceptions in foreign policy.”

According to the former ambassador, it was mentioned in late Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto’s foreign policy vision that lack of progress on one issue should not impede progress on the others.

He maintained that regional trade and commerce is the way forward for Pakistan. “It is not an age of independence, it is an age of interdependence,” he added. He called on Pakistan’s political leadership to evolve consensus on a foreign policy that would break what he called the status quo.


Ambassador Khalid Mahmood, on the other hand, urged Pakistan to follow the Chinese model in domestic and foreign policy which is not characterised by domestic economic development alone but also by an uncompromising principled stance on core foreign policy issues. He added that Pakistan will have to combine the security and economic development aspects of foreign policy.

Dr Mavara Inayat of the Department of International Relations at Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU), who was also among the panellists, called for learning from the example of the European Union (EU) for regional integration. Deputy Head of EU delegation to Pakistan Pierre Mayaudon agreed to the proposition, that there was a greater need for Pakistan’s foreign policy paradigm to reflect Pakistan’s economic needs including international trading relationships.

Moreover, Shabana Fayyaz of the Department of Defense and Strategic Studies, Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU) called for reducing the gap between the foreign policy pronouncements of the political leaders and their actual implementation.

Deputy Political Counsellor of the US Embassy Constancy Arvis said that even though the problem of terrorism had implications beyond Pakistan’s borders and countries like the US had serious interest in it, war on terror was also in the interest of Pakistan to secure a peaceful future.

Defense Analyst Lt Gen. (retd) Asad Durrani argued that friendly relations with all countries could be a foreign policy goal but not the policy itself, because a comprehensive foreign policy needs to cope both with threats and opportunities. The conference was organised by the Institute of Regional Studies.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 29^th, 2011.