US, Pakistan resetting ties amid changing world order: Maleeha
new york — Pakistan and the United States are in the process of resetting their relationship against the backdrop of geopolitical shifts that have transformed the global and regional environment, a top Pakistani diplomat told a gathering of American foreign policy experts, academics and businessmen.
Participating in a discussion at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), a London-based international think tank, Maleeha Lodhi, Pakistan’s permanent representative to the UN, said that an improved Islamabad-Washington relationship was important for global and regional peace and stability.
“The nature of the future relationship will be determined by the terms of such re-engagement with the wider geopolitical dynamics obviously weighing in on calculations by the two sides,” Lodhi said in her wide-ranging presentation.
Rick Grove, President of the US
at a discussion organised by a think tank. > The event was also attended by US foreign policy experts, and academics. > She says peace in Afghanistan could only be restored through negotiated settlement. Friends of the IISS, presided over the hour-long discussion on “Pakistan’s relations with the US in a changing world” that also included Robin Raphel, a former US As- sistant Secretary of State, who last served as coordinator for nonmilitary assistance to Pakistan.
Raphel said that despite ups and downs in their relationship, the United States, as a global power, cannot ignore Pakistan which she said was an influential Muslim country, an emerging democracy with a powerful military.
The US diplomat noted Pakistan now feels more confident of itself because of its burgeoning relationship with China, and growing ties with Russia. Still, she said that Pakistan needs the United States.
Raphel underscored the need for the US and Pakistan to collaborate in an effort to promote a settlement to end the war in Afghanistan. As a diplomat, she regretted that the overall efforts to deal with the Afghan war were more focused on a military solution rather than through a diplomatic process. — APP