ISLAMABAD: Tensions with Afghanistan, faltering relations with the US, and chronically poor ties with India. Pakistan today stands isolated, observers say, and bringing it back into the fold is a formidable task for its new premier Imran Khan.
"We have a very big foreign policy challenge right now. If there is one country that needs peace and stability right now, it's Pakistan," the former cricket champion said in his victory speech after last month's election.
Achieving that is not likely to be easy for the first-time PM and foreign affairs novice who Saturday took the reins of a country that has been widely accused of stoking regional insecurity by backing extremists -- claims Islamabad has repeatedly denied.
Ties with the US cooled further in January when President Donald Trump accused Pakistan of "lies" and "duplicity" in the war on terror, suspending military assistance worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
Khan has repeatedly blamed Pakistan's participation in the US-led anti-terror campaign for the surge in terrorism on home soil over the last decade.
Now as premier, in a tone noticeably softer than his earlier anti-US comments, Khan has said he wants a "balanced relationship" instead of "fighting America's war" in exchange for aid.
Khan has long advocated a negotiated settlement with Islamist insurgents, a commitment that led to criticism that he is soft on militants and earned him the nickname "Taliban Khan".
If not in Washington, he may find a sympathetic ear in Kabul.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has also been pushing for talks with the Taliban, and offered a new, conditional ceasefire on Sunday.
"Imran Khan is very well positioned in building trust again with Afghanistan," observed Huma Yusuf, an analyst at the Wilson Center in Washington. "He is seen as a fresh face with a credible voice."
But given the current freeze with Washington, said Yusuf, Pakistan's "drift from the US camp to the China camp will continue".
Beijing has long been Islamabad's "all-weather friend", and the strategic relationship was stepped up with the 2013 launch of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a multi-billion-dollar infrastructure project that is part of Beijing's Belt and Road initiative.
The alliance is widely considered Pakistan's most important, and Khan has vowed to strengthen it further.
But CPEC deals are opaque, and amid fears about Pakistan's ability to repay Chinese loads, his party has vowed more transparency.
That may be difficult in a country where any criticism that may hurt ties with Beijing is considered taboo.
"The new government will try to avoid any embarrassment linked with CPEC," said Andrew Small, an expert on China-Pakistan relations.
The stakes are high as Khan's nascent government must act quickly to avert a looming balance of payments crisis, and most analysts agree that Pakistan will need a loan from abroad.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF), which has bailed Pakistan out repeatedly in recent decades, is one option.
But Washington, its main contributor, has voiced concerns about Fund money being used to repay Pakistan's debt to China, and could dictate strict terms.
Some in Pakistan have suggested Beijing itself could come to the rescue but Small warned there may be a limit to China's largesse.
It is arch-rival India which remains Pakistan's biggest foreign policy challenge, however.
The nuclear-armed rivals have fought three wars since the end of British rule in 1947, including two over Kashmir, the vast Himalayan territory that is claimed by both.
But reaching out to New Delhi is a path fraught with risk for civilian leaders in Pakistan, where foreign and defence policies are dominated by the powerful military.
Many analysts believe former premier Nawaz Sharif's strong advocacy for better India ties earned him the wrath of the military.
It also prompted vociferous criticism from Khan, who accused Sharif of trying to please India at the expense of Pakistan's interests.
Khan's charged anti-India statements prompted many in both countries to predict that ties could suffer under his leadership.
"I was a little saddened by the way the Indian media portrayed me, as if I'm a villain in a Bollywood film," the new PM acknowledged in his victory speech.
But in an apparent about-turn after his poll victory, Khan has advocated peace as the only way forward.
"Pakistan and India must dialogue and resolve their conflicts incl Kashmir... and start trading", he tweeted on Tuesday.
In the end, observers say, the extent to which Khan can influence Pakistan's foreign policy will depend on what the military deems acceptable.
His new foreign minister, the high-profile Shah Mehmood Qureshi, brushed off that idea, saying that foreign policy would be made "in the foreign office".
But analyst Pervez Hoodbhoy said that in terms of international affairs, "I don't expect anything significant" from Khan.
"This is not for him to decide."
Can Imran Khan bring Pakistan in from the diplomatic cold?
Can Imran Khan bring Pakistan in from the diplomatic cold?
- The International Monetary Fund (IMF), which has bailed Pakistan out repeatedly in recent decades, is one option
- Many analysts believe former premier Nawaz Sharif's strong advocacy for better India ties earned him the wrath of the military
Chinese military jet crashes, pilot safely ejects
The southern command oversees some of the country’s most sensitive areas including the South China Sea
BEIJING: A Chinese naval fighter jet crashed on Saturday during a training exercise but its pilot successfully ejected from the plane, the military said.
The fighter jet, from the Chinese military’s Southern Theater Command, crashed in an open area in the southern island province of Hainan, the navy said in a statement on social media.
The southern command oversees some of the country’s most sensitive areas including the South China Sea, where there has been a spate of violent clashes between Chinese and Philippine vessels in recent years around disputed reefs and islands in the area.
“The pilot successfully ejected, and no collateral damage was caused on the ground,” the statement said.
An investigation into the cause of the crash has been launched and the navy is organizing efforts to handle the aftermath, it added.
China has for years sought to expand its presence in contested areas of the sea, brushing aside an international ruling that its claim to most of the waterway has no legal basis.
In recent months, Beijing has more firmly asserted its territorial claims in the South China Sea, where countries such as Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines are defending their own claims.
Last month, the Philippine Coast Guard condemned “dangerous” maneuvers by a Chinese Navy helicopter it said had flown within meters of a surveillance flight carrying a group of journalists over the contested Scarborough Shoal.
Scholz calls on Russia to work toward ‘just peace’ in Ukraine
- “It is now up to Russia to put an end to its daily attacks,” Scholz said
BERLIN: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Saturday called on Russia to finally work toward a just peace in Ukraine after three years of war.
“It is now up to Russia to put an end to its daily attacks against Ukrainian cities and civil infrastructure and to finally take the way of a lasting and just peace,” Scholz said in a statement after participating in a virtual summit hosted by UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
Pope Francis, showing plans to stay on, starts new Catholic reform process
- Francis approved the new process for reforms on Tuesday from Rome’s Gemelli hospital
- His friends and biographers have insisted, however, that he has no plans to step down
VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis approved a new three-year process to consider reforms for the global Catholic Church, the Vatican said on Saturday, in a sign the 88-year-old pontiff plans to continue on as pope despite his ongoing battle with double pneumonia.
Francis has extended the work of the Synod of Bishops, a signature initiative of his 12-year papacy, which has discussed reforms such as the possibility of women serving as Catholic deacons and better inclusion of LGBTQ people in the Church.
The synod, which held an inconclusive Vatican summit of bishops on the future of the Church last October, will now hold consultations with Catholics across the world for the next three years, before hosting a new summit in 2028.
Francis approved the new process for reforms on Tuesday from Rome’s Gemelli hospital, where he is being treated, the Vatican said on Saturday.
The pope has been in hospital for more than a month and his prolonged public absence has stoked speculation that he could choose to follow his predecessor Benedict XVI and resign from the papacy.
His friends and biographers have insisted, however, that he has no plans to step down. The approval of a new three-year process indicated he wants to continue on, despite his age and the possibility he might face a long, fraught road to recovery from pneumonia, given his age and other medical conditions.
“The Holy Father ... is helping push the renewal of the Church toward a new missionary impulse,” Cardinal Mario Grech, the official leading the reform process, told the Vatican’s media outlet. “This is truly a sign of hope.”
BRINGING CHURCH ‘UP TO DATE’
Francis, who has been pope since 2013, is widely seen as trying to open up the staid global Church to the modern world.
However, the pope’s reform agenda has upset some Catholics, including a few senior cardinals. They have accused him of watering down the Church’s teachings on issues such as same-sex marriage, and divorce and remarriage.
Massimo Faggioli, a US academic who has followed the papacy closely, said the new reform process is a way for the pope to signal that he is still the leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.
“Francis’ pontificate is not over, and this decision he just made for what happens between now and 2028 will have an effect on the rest of (it),” said Faggioli, a professor at Villanova University.
After last October’s inconclusive Vatican summit, which yielded no concrete action on possible reforms, Francis had faced questions of whether his papacy was running out of steam.
Vatican officials had said at the time that Francis was still considering future changes, and was waiting to receive a series of 10 expected reports about possible reforms this June.
The latest medical bulletins from the Vatican on the pope’s condition in hospital have said he is improving and is no longer in immediate danger of death.
They have not said when he will be discharged from hospital.
Well-wishers have been gathering to offer support for Francis outside the hospital each day during the pope’s recovery.
Stefania Gianni, an Italian being treated for cancer at the facility, said on Saturday that Francis “has taken great steps to bring the Church up to date with the times.”
“He is a great man and a great pope, and the Church still needs him,” she said.
Putin will have to ‘come to table,’ UK PM says hosting coalition call
- While Ukraine had shown it was the “party of peace” by agreeing to a 30-day unconditional ceasefire, “Putin is the one trying to delay,” Starmer said
- “If Putin is serious about peace, I think it’s very simple, he has to stop his barbaric attacks on Ukraine and agree to a ceasefire, and the world is watching“
LONDON: UK premier Keir Starmer said the “ball was in Russia’s court” and that President Vladimir Putin would “sooner or later” have to “come to the table,” after a virtual summit on Saturday to drum up support for a coalition willing to protect any eventual ceasefire in Ukraine.
The British prime minister told some 26 fellow leaders as they joined the group call hosted by Downing Street that they should focus on how to strengthen Ukraine, protect any ceasefire and keep up the pressure on Moscow.
While Ukraine had shown it was the “party of peace” by agreeing to a 30-day unconditional ceasefire, “Putin is the one trying to delay,” he said.
“If Putin is serious about peace, I think it’s very simple, he has to stop his barbaric attacks on Ukraine and agree to a ceasefire, and the world is watching,” he added.
Military chiefs will now meet again on Thursday in the UK as the coalition moves into “the operational phase,” Starmer said after the talks.
“The group that met this morning is a bigger group than we had two weeks ago, there is a stronger collective resolve and new commitments were put on the table this morning,” he added.
EU chief European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a message on X that Russia has to show “it is willing to support a ceasefire leading to a just and lasting peace.”
And Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof also said on X it was “now important to continue to exert pressure on Russia to come to the negotiating table.”
Overnight fighting continued in the relentless three-year war, with Russia saying it had taken two more villages in its Kursk border region where it has launched an offensive to wrest back seized territory.
As moves have gathered pace for a ceasefire, Moscow has pushed this week to retake a large part of the land that Ukraine originally captured in western Kursk.
But Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky, who joined the talks, denied Saturday any “encirclement” of his troops in the Kursk region.
“Our troops continue to hold back Russian and North Korean groupings in the Kursk region,” he said on social media.
The Russian defense ministry said troops took control over the villages of Zaoleshenka and Rubanshchina — north and west of the town of Sudzha, the main town that Moscow reclaimed this week.
Kyiv meanwhile said its air force had overnight downed 130 Iranian-made Russian-launched Shahed drones over 14 regions of the country.
Putin has called on embattled Ukrainian troops in Kursk to “surrender,” while his US counterpart Donald Trump urged the Kremlin to spare their lives.
“The Kremlin’s complete disregard for President Trump’s ceasefire proposal only serves to demonstrate that Putin is not serious about peace,” Starmer said late Friday ahead of the call.
Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron have been leading efforts to assemble a so-called “coalition of the willing” ever since Trump opened direct negotiations with Moscow last month.
They say the group is necessary — along with US support — to provide Ukraine with security guarantees by deterring Putin from violating any ceasefire.
Starmer and Macron have said they are willing to put British and French troops on the ground in Ukraine but it is not clear if other countries are keen on doing the same.
Macron also called on Russia late Friday to accept the proposal for a ceasefire, and stop making statements aimed at “delaying the process.”
The French president also demanded that Moscow stop its “acts of violence” in Ukraine.
Germany on Friday likewise criticized Putin’s response to the US-proposed ceasefire in Ukraine as “at best a delaying tactic.”
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Friday he was “cautiously optimistic” about reaching a truce, but acknowledged there was “a lot of work that remains to be done.”
Starmer has said he welcomes any offer of support for the coalition, raising the prospect that some countries could contribute logistics or surveillance.
But Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni reiterated after the call, which she joined, that Italy’s “participation in a possible military force on the ground is not envisaged.”
British Commonwealth partners Canada, Australia and New Zealand have been involved in early talks and dialled into the summit.
NATO chief Mark Rutte and European Union chiefs von der Leyen and Antonio Costa also took part, along with the leaders of Germany, Spain, Portugal, Latvia, Romania, Turkiye and the Czech Republic among others.
Serbia’s capital braces for a major anti-government rally as tensions mount
- A deafening sound of whistles and vuvuzelas echoed throughout the Serbian capital, on high alert since the rally was announced
- It was probably the biggest anti-government rally ever held in the Balkan country
BELGRADE: Tens of thousands rallied on Saturday in downtown Belgrade against populist President Aleksandar Vucic and his government, the latest in a series of anti-corruption protests that have shaken his 13-year firm grip on power.
A deafening sound of whistles and vuvuzelas echoed throughout the Serbian capital, on high alert since the rally was announced, as people headed toward several agreed-on protest venues. Some carried banners that read, “He’s Finished!” Others chanted: “Pump it Up,” a slogan adopted during the four months of student-led protests.
It was probably the biggest anti-government rally ever held in the Balkan country.
”I expect that this will shake his authority and that Vucic will realize that people are no longer for him,” Milenko Kovacevic, a protester, said.
Reflecting mounting tensions, police said they arrested a man who rammed his car into protesters in a Belgrade suburb, injuring three people.
Ahead of the demonstration, Vucic repeatedly warned of alleged plans for unrest while threatening arrests and harsh sentences for any incidents.
In an apparent effort to prevent people from attending the rally, Belgrade city transport was canceled Saturday while huge columns of cars jammed the roads leading into the capital. The transport company said the cancelation was made “for security reasons.”
On Friday evening, tens of thousands of people staged a joyous welcome for the students who have been marching or cycling for days from across Serbia toward Belgrade for the main rally on Saturday afternoon. From early morning, people started assembling in various parts of the city, preparing to march toward the center.
Fueling fears of clashes, Vucic’s supporters have been camping in central Belgrade in front of his headquarters. The crowd included ex-members of a dreaded paramilitary unit involved in the assassination in 2003 of Serbia’s first democratic Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic, as well as soccer hooligans who are known for causing violence.
Private N1 television on Saturday broadcast footage of dozens of young men with baseball caps going into the pro-Vucic camp.
Interior Minister Ivica Dacic told state RTS broadcaster that 13 people have been detained overnight but that no major incidents were reported on Friday. He said police detained six opposition activists for allegedly plotting to stage a coup and stir unrest on Saturday.
Protesting students have led the nationwide anti-graft movement, which started after a concrete canopy collapsed at a train station and killed 15 people in Serbia’s north on Nov. 1.
Many in Serbia blamed the crash on rampant government corruption, negligence and disrespect of construction safety regulations.
Vucic has been claiming that Western intelligence services were behind almost daily student-led protests with an aim to oust him from power.
Students have struck a chord among the citizens who are disillusioned with politicians and have lost faith in the state institutions. Previous student-led rallies in other Serbian cities have been peaceful while drawing huge crowds.
