Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Hina Rabbani Khar, on Tuesday dispelled the impression given by the opposition that Pakistan was in isolation, saying the country’s foreign policy was moving in the right direction with all diplomatic missions “working complicatedly on all fronts”.
Speaking during a budget session in the National Assembly, Khar said Pakistan was playing a much bigger role on the international front than its size in terms of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
“We are very happy to state that over the years, Pakistani diplomats, Pakistani statesmen and Pakistani politicians have contributed towards [effectiveness of] a policy in the multilateral institutions”, she added.
With respect to BRICS, she said there was absolutely no denying of the fact that China was the most effective strategic partner of Pakistan.
The BRICS (Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa) brings together five of the largest developing countries in the world, representing 41 per cent of the global population, 24pc of the global GDP and 16pc of the global trade.
“China is part of BRICS which means all the member countries have to work to cooperate [with] each other”, the state minister added. If a certain unfriendly country, she said, wanted to block Pakistan and succeeded in doing so, then “how can we doubt China’s intention”.
She said in BRICS “we don’t have a role but we still have core roles in many other international forums such as heart of Asia”.
Talking about the case of Aafia Siddiqui, the minister said as far as fighting her case was concerned, Pakistan was doing it at every level and that the country was consistent in its policy across the governments to fight in favour of the case.
