ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, in his first foreign policy guidance to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and its missions abroad, made it clear that national interest would drive Pakistans foreign policy.So far Sharif has avoided mentioning the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline and later, as if on cue the spokesman at the Foreign Office when questioned replied, I will get back to you with the requisite information.The drone attacks, which Nawaz mentioned in his first speech after being elected as the prime minister, also do not figure in the foreign policy guidelines.
Emerging as the first civilian government with no foreign minister in office, Sharif himself articulated his governments vision for the future. The tone and tenor of the new guidelines were more bureaucratic rather than political in nature.
On terrorism, Sharifs government intends to develop a comprehensive strategy and a national consensus in consultation will all the political parties, security forces, media and the civil society in dealing with this phenomenon.
At the same time, it is imperative to address the external dimension of terrorism. This would require plugging the sources of external funding of various extremists groups besides seeking cooperation of regional and global community, said Sharif.
Since these are broad outlines of the foreign policy, Sharif did not go into details of future efforts to talk to the Pakistani Taliban.Sharif, like his earlier stint in office, focused on the importance of the countrys immediate neighbours.Unless the region is peaceful, our efforts for growth and development will not meet with success, he said.
For someone who had earlier also played an important role in bringing the Afghans to the negotiating table, Sharif went further and stressed on a regional consensus on supporting a stable government and peace in Afghanistan.
A policy of an Afghan-led, Afghan-owned process of peace and reconciliation will be persuaded, he added.Pakistan will strive to deepen its relations in the Middle East, while Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Iran are seen as friendly countries with which close cooperative relations will be pursued.
A day after when India at the highest level had accused the ISI of training Sikhs to destabilise Indian Punjab, Sharif pointed towards progressively pursuing normalcy in relations with India while actively seeking solutions to all the outstanding issues, including Jammu and Kashmir.
With Washington, Sharif pointed to areas of common interest but wherever there are divergence, we will work to try to minimise and remove such divergences, he said without mentioning the continuous drone attacks.
Pakistan sees China as a great friend and significant economic partner and the relationship will be strengthened. Russia is an important partner and regional power with which Pakistan will continue to enhance ties.
While recognising Europes economic troubles, Sharif says: European continues to remain and important player on the global scene and is our largest trading partner. We will continue to engage with European countries, both bilaterally with individual countries, as well as multilaterally with the European Union.
While mentioning the vision of Quaid-i-Azam for a democratic and progressive Pakistan, Sharif focused several times on the fact that Pakistans core of internal strength lies in sustained economic growth.
Diplomatic missions have been asked to make this the central objective of the national agenda and to aggressively pursue economic diplomacy and promotion of Pakistans interests in the realms of trade, foreign investment and economic cooperation.
Effective economic diplomacy would require synergistic relationship between the diplomatic missions and the relevant stakeholders in Pakistan including government ministries as well as the business community at large. The economic ministries/departments i.e. commerce, finance, EAD and BOI must provide the requisite information and back-up support needed by the missions to undertake practical steps for facilitating traders and current and prospective investors at both ends, said Nawaz Sharif.
Commenting on the energy crisis, Sharif asked the heads of missions to identify potential bilateral and multilateral partners to help address the energy crisis and formulate tangible project proposals in the traditional and renewable energy sectors.
By The News International
The Iran Project is not responsible for the content of quoted articles.
