Ambassador Salman Bashir. White Star
KARACHI: The Pakistan Institute of International Affairs (PIIA) held a seminar/webinar on ‘Emerging geostrategic contestation in Asia-Pacific: challenges and opportunities for Pakistan’ on Wednesday.
Retired Lt Gen Tariq Waseem Ghazi, who inaugurated the event, said in his address that Pakistan had always punched above its weight.
“We have always been involved in somebody else’s game, somebody else’s war, considering ourselves as the key player in those events. In pre-colonial times we were fighting the Russian Empire, fighting for the British or fighting for somebody or the other. After independence there were times when we were looking at CENTO and sometimes at SEATO, and then we saw ourselves in the middle of the Gulf War, in the global war on terrorism, etc … while Kashmir burns.
With Trump out of White House, former diplomats expect a positive turn in bilateral ties
US President Joe Biden reacts after being sworn in during his inauguration on the West Front of the US Capitol, in Washington, US, January 20, 2021. PHOTO: REUTERS
ISLAMABAD:
When Prime Minister Imran Khan was invited at the White House in July 2019, it was a remarkable turnaround in the bilateral ties given how then president Donald Trump bashed Pakistan earlier for not doing enough in the fight against terrorism.
The July 22, 2019 meeting between Trump and Imran was made possible by Trump’s close aide Senator Lindsey Graham, who became a fan of the Pakistani prime minister and partly because of the role played by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman.