ISLAMABAD:Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Parliamentary Party Leader in Senate Sherry Rehman Saturday emphasised the importance of cooperation as the South Asian region battles the shared challenges such as security, climate change and development.
“Pakistan is at the hub of key supply chains which are pivotal building blocks in the gateway to Central Asia and can completely change the way we live and earn our living,”
She said while speaking at the 2019 Pakistan-United States Alumni Network (PUAN) Conference as the guest of honor. While unpacking the regional challenges and opportunities Pakistan faces in a rapidly changing world,
The PPP leader said, “The first thing we need to understand is that we need to allow more trade, more regional travel, promote a culture of cooperation and work towards finding common ground on even the most long standing disputes such as Kashmir.”
Commenting upon the benefits of increased connectivity and cooperation in the region, she said, “We are seeking to be a digital economy and that is another way of connecting.
We need to be able to leverage gains through connectivity and while there are obstacles, we must try to work past them.” Talking about the opportunities that lie within the shifting paradigm of Pakistan-US relations and the way forward,
she said, “The containment of China has now been articulated as a national security goal for the US. But even so, both US and China are finding it hard to completely decouple their economies.
Pakistan, for its part, must not find itself in the crosshairs of new global binaries. One of the greatest antidotes to conflict is the growth and regional integration of the economy, and we need to invest in that process in terms of resetting relations.”
“The best way forward for us is to not weigh down relationships with the burden of expectations. Nobody owes us anything it is our own interest and work to get through,” she added.
“As far as Afghanistan is concerned, Pakistan is also course-correcting there – there are some real historical wrongs and sometimes imagined wrongs in that mix,” the PPP senator said. “Peace can only be brought to Afghanistan by Afghanistan, not us, not by patrons.
the future of Afghanistan must rest in their own hands,” she said. “We must support and assist them, enable them to the best of our abilities and resources,” she added.(INP)
