Amid rising tensions between China and the United States, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has said that Pakistan does not want to become part of any camp and wanted to concentrate on its economic and social issues.
In a conversation with Voice of America Urdu, the foreign minister urged the US not to push the world towards another cold war through its actions against Beijing.
The comments by the foreign minister came days after Pakistan skipped a democracy summit hosted by the US president. China and Russia were not invited to this summit.
Qureshi said that it will not be easy for Pakistan to maintain a balanced relationship with Washington and Beijing due to the US policy of going after China. “The United States is [also] ignoring India’s missteps to keep China in check,” he added.
“The world needs to save itself from the cold war mentality,” the FM said, adding that it was not in the best interests of Pakistan to become part of any confrontation.
The Pakistani government has shifted its policy from geo-politics to geo-economics and the US can help Pakistan in this respect through trade, investment, technology transfer, the foreign minister said, adding that Islamabad wanted good relations with Washington. already committed to being the air and land bridge for humanitarian support to Afghanistan, it added.
Participants of the committee again expressed concerns over deteriorating humanitarian situa-tion in Afghanistan and emphasised that Paki-stan will not abandon Afghans in their time of need.
