Web Desk, June 22, 2023: Commenting on the Indian Prime Minister’s visit to the US, Minister of State Hina Rabbani Khar said that Pakistan would always look positively at bilateral ties between sovereign countries and not view them in a negative light.
“There is no need to look at anything negatively,” she said in an interview with Voice of America (VoA).
However, she maintained Pakistan had a very belligerent neighbour who indulged in military adventurism by sending jets to Pakistan in 2019, terming the move “unprecedented” and “unthinkable”.
The state minister said the world must look into this factor and decide whether those being propagated for a role in regional security deserved it.
“The world has to see whether there was conflict preservation instead conflict resolution due to them (India), then it did not augur well for the region. We hope that nothing will go wrong for the region and Pakistan,” she remarked.
The Indian PM is currently in the US for his first visit with the full diplomatic status of an official state visit.
The visit is also the third state visit of Joe Biden’s presidency and the third by an Indian leader to the US, indicating the strengthening bond between Washington and New Delhi.
The visit is expected to see the two countries expand cooperation in the defence industry and high technology sectors, with India getting access to critical American technologies that Washington rarely shares with non-allies.
The visit, however, puts Pakistan in a precarious position given its strained ties with India.
Over the years, Washington’s cooperation with India has increased as Pakistan has gotten closer to China — especially after the latter’s investment in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
Ties with EU
About ties with the EU, the state minister said Pakistan’s Scheme of Preferences Plus (GSP+) status was not sufficient to define the country’s relations with the EU as their bilateral engagements were wider and broader at all levels, including business contacts, institutional linkages, IT sector growth etc.
She said the GSP Plus benefited Pakistan and enhanced the EU’s trade with Pakistan, adding that Pakistan and the EU countries were engaged at different multilateral fora.
The MoS further stressed that such relations should not be looked at merely through the GSP Plus lens, but their interactions were much broader.
About her recent visits to different Scandinavian countries, she elaborated that certain countries had an ageing population and required young people for various sectors.
She said opening legal migration of skilled labour to these countries was their primary objective, as Pakistan and these countries did not want to promote illegal migration.