-Ambassador Akram

Kathmandu: The Republic of Pakistan, a very powerful member of the SAARC regional body and concurrently also a Central Asian personality as claimed by Pakistan’s Ambassador Zamir Akram on Monday here, has once again proposed for the need for the establishment of a “New Security Architecture in South Asia”.

According to Ambassador Akram, the Pakistani foreign secretary, Monsieur Riaz Khokhar on 22 May, 3003 presented a draft proposal in Geneva for the establishment of such a structure meant for South Asia, which possess six elements in all.

The first element contained in the Pak draft proposal states “Foreswearance of the use or the threat of force in settling disputes; the second reiterates ” Full respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all States of the region; the third talks of the institutionalization of a “Permanent mechanism for bilateral dialogue and consultations for dispute settlement; the fourth suggests the “Initiation of result oriented talks for devising mutually acceptable confidence building measures in the nuclear field; the fifth sees the need to the “Stabilization of conventional forces at levels consonant with the legitimate security needs of the States of the region and the sixth element demands “Renewed commitment to jointly combat the true enemy of South Asia that is poverty, hunger, illiteracy and disease.

Ambassador Akram made these observations Monday afternoon at a program organized by the Embassy itself on the topic “Recent International and Regional Developments” which was participated in by a number of noted Nepali academicians and media men.

During the lecture program, the Pakistani diplomat touched upon his country’s foreign policy determinants; global and regional issues and on Pakistan’s policies regarding weapons of mass destruction or otherwise the WMD.

Talking on Pakistan’s foreign policy determinants, Ambassador Akram opined that these were guided by domestic priorities which demanded a vibrant national economy and that in turn demanded peace within and without.

” Pakistan is not only a South Asian personality but also concurrently a central Asian personality for Pakistan is at the cross roads of South and central Asia and that our borders touch China as well and are placed geo-strategically close to the Gulf region/the Middle East.

“But this doesn’t mean that we are inclined much towards in claiming ourselves as a central Asian personality for our attachment with South Asia goes back to centuries and that we have so many things in common with the prevailing South Asian cultures and traditions”, clarified the Ambassador.

He however admitted that after the collapse of the then Soviet Union, Pakistan got an excellent opportunity to expand her ties with the Central Asian republics. By way of reference, the Pak diplomat also hinted that his country could act like a bridge in between the South and the Central Asian countries if the countries of this region so desired.

Talking on the issues confronting the globe today, Ambassador Akram made no secret of his country’s displeasure with the lone super power, the United States which in his opinion had initiated a sort of “pre-emptive” war on Iraq which, added Ambassador, as “dangerous. This he said in an indirect fashion indeed.

“In essence, the world population had expected that the end of the Cold War would bring in a “new international order” to the benefit of the entire human kind but the irony has been that it instead paved the way for what the Ambassador preferred to call “disorder”.

The fact of the matter is that he was hinting the supremacy of the lone super power-the United States in the absence of a bipolar world prior to the end of the cold war. Its corollary would be that the Pakistani envoy preferred the existence of a bipolar world. The significance of his message lies here.

The disorders that the end of the cold war brought were in the form of emergence of various ethnic conflicts and scores of regional disputes remaining unresolved, continued the Ambassador.

“Pakistan would wish to see the idea of collective security established under the aegis of the United Nations”, remarked the Pak envoy.

On matters related to terrorism, the Ambassador stated that there had been two kinds of terrorism; the first being an act of terrorism initiated by non-state actors and the second being a terrorism wherein a State itself is involved. Where the Ambassador was hinting by saying so is any body’s guess.

” Now it was time that the world leaders distinguish between terrorism and legitimate struggle of people’s under foreign occupation”, said the Ambassador.

Commenting on Pakistan’s policy towards the weapons of mass destruction, Ambassador Akram lamented that when his country was denied enough and credible security guarantees of the sorts of what has been provided to countries like Japan and Germany, his country was “forced to develop nuclear capability for defense and deterrence after Indian tests of 1974”.

Commenting on WTO and new economic order, the Ambassador maintained that there should be a sort of “balance between benefits and costs to both developed and the developing countries, especially the LDCs.

Regarding the recent positive developments seen in Pakistan-India ties, the Ambassador hastened to add that it was wrong to preview that only Pakistan were interested in a constructive dialogue with India. He however, said that his country had disputes only with India amongst the crowd of many countries in the region.

On bilateral ties, the Pakistani envoy said that both the countries have been cooperating in political, “military”, economic, trade’ education and cultural areas.

“But greater potential exists provided both the countries made efforts in finding alternative roots”. Concluded the Ambassador.