Pakistan-China relations strengthening bilateral economic relations: FM Qureshi

ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Saturday said there is shift in direction of the country’s foreign policy from geo-politics to geo-economics because Pakistan needed economic security.

“For that purpose we need peace, investment and share in regional trade,” he said, adding Pakistan required to be economically strong if it wanted to have sovereign foreign policy,” the foreign minister said while winding up debate on cut motions on demands and grants relating to his ministry.

The minister said the country’s foreign policy would completely supporting the financial objectives and targets of the government as a part of economic diplomacy. He said this year Pakistan received record remittances because the overseas Pakistanis were showing confidence in the leadership of Imran Khan and his government.

He said only that person would talk about Kashmir who like to live and die in Pakistan and have no passport other than Pakistan and no property in London. “It is Imran Khan who internationalised the Kashmir issue and exposed the face of Modi, the secular face of India and Hindutva philosophy,” he said.

He said the OIC foreign minister adopted a unanimous view on Kashmir issue, while the Human Rights Commission in its report release during the year 2019 exposed India’s brutal face. “The opposition parties have no courage to take up and talk about the Kashmir issue,” he said, adding that the UN Security Council also took up the Kashmir issue thrice. He said the General Assembly’s president and UN Secretary General talked about Kashmir while standing with Pakistan’s foreign minister.

He said the PML-N could not find a foreign minister for four years but they were criticising the foreign policy of the incumbent government.

He said the foreign minister of Palestine also recognises the role of Pakistan in reaching a ceasefire in Gaza. “Following resolution of this House in letter and spirit, I led from the front and met foreign ministers of Muslim countries present in New York,” he said.

Foreign minister said that India wanted to see Pakistan isolated in the community but it could not succeed in its nefarious designs. “Today Pakistan is engaged with the European world, Pakistan is engaged with African countries and there are better relations with external powers like the United States and Russia,” he said. However, he said had the present government pursued last five years foreign policy, it could have been isolated in the world.

Referring to the latest developments in Afghanistan, the foreign minister said there was a change in the world’s mindset that today Pakistan was not part of the problem but part of the solution. “In the last tenure, there used to be skirmishes at Pak-Iran border but today we have much better relations with the country,” he said.

He said that Pakistan and China were experiencing unprecedented enthusiasm in their relations. “That is why China wants to take forward economic and strategic relations with Pakistan,” he said. He said if the opposition could not believe in his words then they would soon see the Chinese president announcing the same on the floor of the Parliament.

Shah Mahmood Qureshi pointed out that the present government has been able to develop relations with Saudi Arabia and UAE which were mishandled by the last regime because of contradictions in deeds and words. “Prime Minister Imran Khan was able to get deferred oil payment from Saudi Arabia but the last government could not succeed in its efforts,” he said.

He said that a 31% reduction in LNG prices reached with Qatar also showed enthusiasm in relations between two countries while Kuwait also lifted visa restrictions for Pakistanis. He said that the European countries also signed a new engagement policies agreement with Pakistan on June 19, 2019.