News Analysis |
Leader of the Opposition in Senate Sherry Rehman has said that “policymakers should navigate geopolitical turmoil and avoid policy drift in the face of new regional stresses including climate change.” She was speaking at a seminar held by an NGO, Jinnah Institute here on Thursday.
She said that “Pakistan must seek to build a peaceful, progressive and plural Pakistan, but that this would require concerted effort given the emergence of hyper-nationalism and exclusionary politics around the world.”
Speaking on the occasion, Professor Ayesha Jalal said that, “Pakistan’s trajectory has been a result of choices made by leaders over the years, adding that it was impossible to have a safe country without safe borders.” She further noted that Pakistan’s leaders had allowed relations with the country’s neighbors to drift.
Former Senator Aitzaz Ahsan, meanwhile, argued that the United States continued to be the world’s leading economic and military global power, and that the demise of uni polarity should not be assumed to be a given.
Speakers included eminent Adil Najam, former Senator Aitzaz Ahsan, former Advisor to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Tariq Faetmi, former Foreign Secretaries Riaz Khokhar and Salman Bashir, former DG ISPR Maj. Gen. (Retd) Athar Abbas, Chinese Ambassador Yao Jing, Indian High Commissioner Ajay Bisaria, Afghan Ambassador Dr. Omar Zakhilwal, EU Ambassador Jean Francois Cautain, German Ambassador Martin Kobler, environmental lawyer and water expert Rafay Alam, and senior journalists Zahid Hussain, Nasim Zehra, Ejaz Haider and Arifa Noor.
Read more: Pakistan’s foreign policy and current challenges-part 2
Speaking in the session ‘After Shanghai: The End of Unipolarity?’ former Advisor to the PM on Foreign Affairs Tariq Fatemi took the view that a “multipolar world order could suit the evolving needs of a global community in crisis, and that the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) had the potential to emerge as a forum for regional engagement through dialogue rather than confrontation.”
Speaking on the occasion, Professor Ayesha Jalal said that, “Pakistan’s trajectory has been a result of choices made by leaders over the years, adding that it was impossible to have a safe country without safe borders.”
Chinese Ambassador Yao Jing, meanwhile, maintained that China believed in constructive engagement and had an important role to play in the evolving world order. He further added that the SCO epitomized China’s approach towards regional cooperation, and that the basic principle of the Shanghai spirit was a community-based approach to international relations.
Read more: Pakistan’s foreign policy and current challenges-part 1
Former Senator Aitzaz Ahsan, meanwhile, argued that the United States continued to be the world’s leading economic and military global power, and that the demise of uni polarity should not be assumed to be a given. In his remarks, Professor Adil Najam observed that China’s rise was a reality that the world had to contend with.