ISLAMABAD: Ishaq Dar, Pakistan’s deputy prime minister and foreign minister, on Tuesday addressed a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s (SCO) Council of Foreign Ministers in Kazakhstan, where he highlighted Pakistan’s geostrategic location as a trade and transit hub, the Pakistani foreign ministry said.
Dar arrived in Astana, Kazakhstan on Monday to represent Pakistan at the two-day meeting of the SCO Council of Foreign Ministers. Founded in 2001, the SCO is a major trans-regional organization spanning South and Central Asia, with China, Russia, Pakistan, India, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan as its permanent members.
The meeting comes at a time when Pakistan is making rigorous efforts to increase bilateral trade and investment with a number of countries and has aimed to enhance its role as a pivotal trade and transit hub connecting the Central Asian republics with the rest of the world, leveraging its strategic geographical position.
Addressing the SCO foreign ministers’ meeting, Dar explained Pakistan’s priorities as the current Chair of SCO Council of Heads of Government (CHG), including promoting connectivity, development of transport links, youth empowerment, poverty alleviation and enhanced practical cooperation among SCO member states.
“The Deputy Prime Minister said that Pakistan’s geostrategic location offers an ideal trade and transit hub for the SCO region,” the Pakistani foreign ministry said in a statement. “He underlined the significance of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor for regional connectivity and economic integration.”
CPEC, part of President Xi Jinping’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative, is a $65 billion network of roads, railways, pipelines and ports in Pakistan that aims to connect China to the Arabian Sea and help Islamabad expand and modernize its economy.
The project spans several phases, each with distinct goals and impacts on the region. The first phase began in 2015 and mainly focused on building critical infrastructure, particularly in the transportation and energy sectors. The second phase expands the focus to include industrial cooperation, agricultural development and the promotion of social and economic development.
The second phase is also expected to include the development of Special Economic Zones (SEZs), efforts to boost green energy production like hydropower and solar energy, and initiatives to modernize agriculture and increase exports.
On a visit to China this month, Dar said Pakistan and Beijing needed to finalize modalities for other countries to be part of the multi-billion-dollar corridor as Islamabad seeks to attract foreign investment into Pakistan.
“As we embark on phase two of CPEC we look forward to developing corridors of growth, livelihood, innovation, green development, and inclusivity to carry forward our shared vision of making CPEC an inclusive and transparent project,” Dar said. “We also need to finalize the modalities for third party participation in CPEC.”
Pakistan, faced with low foreign exchange reserves, currency devaluation and high inflation, has been pushing for an increase in bilateral trade and investment, with Islamabad seeing a flurry of high-level exchanges from diplomats and business delegations in recent weeks from Saudi Arabia, Japan, Azerbaijan, Qatar and other countries.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has vowed to rid the South Asian country of its chronic macroeconomic crisis through foreign investment and efficient handling of the economy.
At SCO foreign ministers moot, FM Dar highlights Pakistan’s location as trade and transit hub
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At SCO foreign ministers moot, FM Dar highlights Pakistan’s location as trade and transit hub
- The SCO is a major trans-regional organization and its member states collectively represent nearly half of world population
- Dar apprises the SCO meeting of Pakistan’s priorities, including promoting connectivity, poverty alleviation and cooperation
Pakistan delegation in Brussels says Islamabad can develop counterterror partnership with Delhi
- India blames Pakistan for supporting “terrorist” attacks in the part of disputed Kashmir it governs
- Islamabad, Washington thwarted attacks in Pakistan, US and Europe, says head of delegation
ISLAMABAD: The head of a delegation visiting Brussels to present Pakistan’s point of view regarding the country’s recent military standoff with India said on Saturday that Islamabad can develop a “phenomenal” counterterror partnership with Delhi, similar to the one it has with Washington.
India blames Pakistan for arming and funding militants who carry out subversive activities in the part of disputed Kashmir it governs, an allegation Islamabad has always denied. The two countries engaged in a military confrontation for four days last month after India accused Pakistan of supporting an attack at the Pahalgam tourist resort in Indian-administered Kashmir. Twenty-six people, mostly tourists, were killed in the attack.
Pakistan enjoys counterterror cooperation with several countries, including the US, which includes intelligence sharing and other forms of coordination to thwart militant attacks. The head of the United States Central Command (CENTCOM), General Michael Kurilla, this week praised Pakistan as a “phenomenal partner” in counterterrorism efforts during a testimony.
Speaking to reporters in Brussels, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, who is the head of the Pakistani delegation, pointed out that the US and Pakistan have thwarted “terrorist attacks” in Europe, the US and Pakistan through counter-terror coordination.
“Will we be more effectively able to combat terror if India and Pakistan sat together and coordinated, conducted intelligence sharing,” Bhutto Zardari asked in response to a question.
Citing Kurilla’s statement, Bhutto Zardari said Islamabad can develop a counter-terror partnership with New Delhi similar to the one it enjoyed with Washington.
“We can develop that phenomenal partnership with India as well,” he added.
He lamented that there was no cooperation or coordination between the two nuclear-armed nations on combating “terrorism,” adding that the two countries last had a dialogue on counter-terror in 2012.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif announced the nine-member diplomatic group last month, headed by Bhutto Zardari, who is a former foreign minister and the head of the Pakistan Peoples Party.
He has been leading a team to visits in New York, Washington DC, London and Brussels since June 2. Another delegation, led by Special Assistant to the Prime Minister Syed Tariq Fatemi, has visited Moscow.
While the ceasefire between the two countries continues to remain in place, tensions continue to simmer as India says it is holding in abeyance a decades-old water-sharing treaty with Pakistan.
Islamabad had said after India suspended the Indus Waters Treaty that it considered any attempt to stop or divert the flow of water belonging to Pakistan to be an “act of war.”
About 80 percent of Pakistani farms depend on the Indus system, as do nearly all hydropower projects serving the country of some 250 million.
Pakistan and India, bitter rivals, have fought two out of three wars over the disputed territory of Kashmir that they both claim in full but govern only parts of.
Pakistan says 700 army personnel killed in militant attacks in last 2 years
- Pakistan has suffered a surge in militant attacks in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces recently
- Defense Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif blames New Delhi for supporting militant outfits in Pakistan
ISLAMABAD: Around 700 army personnel have been killed in various militant attacks over the past two years, Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif said on Saturday, accusing India of supporting terror outfits in the country.
Pakistan has witnessed a surge in militant attacks since November 2022 in its northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and southwestern Balochistan provinces bordering Iran and Afghanistan. In KP, the Pakistani Taliban or Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) outfit has carried out some of the deadliest attacks against law enforcers.
In Balochistan, separatist ethnic Baloch militant groups demand independence from the state, accusing Islamabad of denying locals a share in the province’s mineral resources. Islamabad denies the allegations.
“In the past two years, 700 of our soldiers have been martyred,” Asif told lawmakers during a televised parliamentary session. “Our civilians have been martyred. Several districts of a province of ours are being targeted by terrorism.”
The minister said that militant outfits such as the TTP or the separatist Baloch Liberation Army are “agents of India,” alleging that they were fighting New Delhi’s war on Pakistani soil.
“Any person who even has a speck of sympathy toward them is not a Pakistani,” Asif said, vowing that Islamabad would win its war against militancy.
India and Pakistan have traded allegations of supporting militant groups for years. New Delhi blames Islamabad for supporting militant outfits who carry out attacks in Indian-administered Kashmir, an allegation that Pakistan has always rejected.
The two countries engaged in a military confrontation for days last month after India attacked Pakistan with missiles, accusing it of supporting an April 22 attack in the Pahalgam tourist resort in Indian-administered Kashmir.
Pakistan denied the allegations and called for an international, credible probe into the incident.
The defense minister expressed solidarity with Iran over Israel’s recent attacks against it, vowing to extend support to the neighboring country.
“In this hour of trial, we are with them in every way,” Asif said. “Whatever help they need at the international level, at the United Nations or any other institution or at the Islamic conference, we will defend their interests there.”
Pakistan calls for enhancing aid, educational assistance for Palestinians
- Pakistan’s foreign minister chairs meeting to review status of ongoing assistance for Palestinians
- Palestinian death toll from 20-month Israel-Hamas war has passed 55,000, official figures say
ISLAMABAD: Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar on Saturday stressed the need to enhance humanitarian relief and educational assistance for Palestinians bearing the brunt of Israel’s military operations in Gaza and the West Bank, the Pakistani foreign office said in a statement.
The Palestinian death toll from the 20-month Israel-Hamas war has passed 55,000, the Gaza Health Ministry said this week. Israeli forces have destroyed vast areas of Gaza, displaced about 90 percent of its population and in recent weeks have transformed more than half of the coastal territory into a military buffer zone that includes the now mostly uninhabited southern city of Rafah.
Pakistan has dispatched several aid consignments for the people of Palestine since last year and also granted scholarships and admissions to hundreds of Palestinian students in Pakistani universities since the war began in 2023.
“Reaffirming Pakistan’s unwavering moral, political, and diplomatic support for the Palestinian cause, the DPM/FM emphasized the need to enhance the provision of humanitarian relief to the Palestinian people as well as to extend educational assistance to the Palestinian students,” the foreign office said.
The statement was issued after Dar chaired a meeting to review the status of the ongoing assistance provided by Pakistan to the people of Palestine.
“The DPM/FM expressed deep concern over the worsening humanitarian situation in Gaza & West Bank, resulting from Israel’s blatant violations of human rights,” the statement said.
The war between the two sides began when Hamas fighters killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in the Oct. 7, 2023 attack in Israel and abducted 251 hostages. More than half the captives have been released in ceasefires or other deals. Israeli forces have rescued eight and recovered the remains of dozens more.
Israel’s military campaign, one of the deadliest and most destructive since World War II, has transformed large parts of cities into mounds of rubble. Hundreds of thousands of people are living in squalid tent camps and unused schools, and the health system has been gutted, even as it copes with waves of wounded from Israeli strikes.
OIC’s COMSTECH eyes enhanced academic collaboration between Pakistan, Bangladesh
- COMSTECH to organize visit by Bangladeshi delegation of universities to Pakistan from June 16-21
- Visit to explore partnerships in higher education, science and technology, says COMSTECH
ISLAMABAD: The OIC Ministerial Standing Committee on Scientific and Technological Cooperation (COMSTECH) is organizing an upcoming visit by a high-level delegation of Bangladeshi universities to Pakistan next week, the global body said this week, as it aims to enhance academic collaboration between the two countries.
The 10-member delegation will comprise vice-chancellors and senior officials from leading public and private sector universities of Bangladesh, COMSTECH said in a statement on Friday. The delegation is set to visit Pakistan from June 16 to 21.
The visit is being organized at COMSTECH’s invitation and is being facilitated by the Bangladesh High Commission in Islamabad, it said.
“The primary objective of the visit is to explore and enhance avenues of academic collaboration and institutional partnerships in the fields of higher education, science, and technology,” COMSTECH said in a press release.
“The delegation will participate in a series of high-level meetings, discussions, and interactive sessions with top Pakistani universities in Lahore and Islamabad.”
It said that these Pakistani institutions are members of COMSTECH’s Consortium of Excellence (CCoE), a collaborative network of premier universities dedicated to advancing scientific cooperation and educational excellence among OIC member states.
“This initiative reflects COMSTECH’s continued commitment to fostering inter-university cooperation and strengthening academic ties across the Muslim world, particularly between Bangladesh and Pakistan,” the statement concluded.
Ties between Pakistan and Bangladesh have improved recently. Once one nation, Bangladesh split from Pakistan after a brutal 1971 war with Dhaka drawing closer to Islamabad’s arch-rival New Delhi over the years.
However, long-time Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina was ousted in August 2024 after her government was overthrown by a student-led protest. She fled via helicopter to India, with Dhaka attempting to extradite her.
Relations between India and Bangladesh’s interim government have been frosty since then, allowing Islamabad and Dhaka to rebuild ties slowly.
Pakistan, EU discuss global security in fifth round of disarmament talks
- Discussions focus on disarmament, non-proliferation of biological and chemical weapons, says Pakistani foreign office
- Pakistan, European Union agree to hold sixth round of disarmament, non-proliferation talks in Brussels next year
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and the European Union this week held the fifth round of non-proliferation and disarmament talks in Islamabad this week, where the two sides discussed enhanced cooperation and implications of emerging technologies on global and regional security, Pakistan’s foreign office said.
The talks between the two sides were held on June 12. The Pakistani delegation was led by Ambassador Tahir Andrabi, the additional foreign secretary for arms control, disarmament and international security. The EU delegation was headed by Ambassador Stephan Klement, the bloc’s special envoy for disarmament and non-proliferation.
The annual dialogue between both sides seeks to ensure global peace and regional stability through non-proliferation of weapons.
“Both sides engaged in a comprehensive exchange of views on issues related to international and regional peace, security, and strategic stability,” a statement from Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) said.
“Pakistan side briefed their EU interlocutors on developments in the wake of recent Pakistan-India conflict.”
India and Pakistan both engaged in the worst fighting between the nuclear-armed neighbors in decades last month before Washington brokered a truce on May 10. India accused Pakistan of deploying its nuclear-capable missile against it, a charge Islamabad denied.
The discussions also focused on various dimensions of disarmament and non-proliferation, with particular reference to the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) and the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), the statement said.
“In addition, the Dialogue reviewed recent trends in Multilateral Export Control Regimes (MECRs) and assessed the implications of Emerging Technologies on global security,” MoFA said. “The avenues for enhanced cooperation in the domain of Science Diplomacy were explored as well.”
The two sides agreed to hold the sixth round of the dialogue in Brussels in 2026.
The Pakistan–EU Dialogue on Non-Proliferation and Disarmament is a key part of the broader strategic engagement between Pakistan and the European Union, which has been institutionalized since 2012.
Pakistan says it attaches high importance to the dialogue, recognizing it as a vital platform for engagement on global and regional security, as well as on disarmament and non-proliferation issues.
