Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has offered Pakistan’s services as a mediator to bring the US and China together as it did decades ago.
The prime minister stated in an interview with Newsweek published on Monday that “If China and the US so desire, Pakistan would be happy to play a positive role to bridge their differences, as we had done in the past.”
The interview focused on national, regional, and global issues, with a particular emphasis on Pakistan’s potential role in these issues “preventing the world from sliding into an ever deeper set of crises”, as put by the publication.
Pakistan’s foreign policy, according to PM Shehbaz, is one of “friendliness and goodwill towards all the nations of the world”.
“Pakistan has traditionally maintained good relations with China and the United States. Historically, it was Pakistan that acted as a bridge in opening up the relationship between the United States and the Peoples’ Republic of China,” he said, as per Geo News report.
According to the prime minister, Pakistan has always emphasised the importance of avoiding a confrontational approach”Bloc politics and any drift towards cold war will not produce any positive results, and in fact would be counterproductive for growth and stability,” he stressed.
“Pakistan strongly believes that inter-state relations should be based on mutual respect and peaceful resolution of disputes by upholding the principles of the UN charter and international law,” he added.
In response to a question about what it might mean for Pakistan and the rest of the world if nations were forced to choose sides, especially given Pakistan’s close ties with China, PM Shehbaz said that while the relationship may be “very special”, Pakistan and the US “have also maintained a longstanding historic bilateral relationship which covers all issues of mutual interest”.
“The world can ill-afford descent into another era of Cold War or bloc politics. I believe polarisation would have serious consequences for the global economy afflicted by the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Ukraine crisis,” the premier told Newsweek, Geo News reported.
He stated that developing countries such as Pakistan are “already suffering from external shocks to their socio-economic well-being, and do not desire aggravation of these challenges induced by major power rivalry”.
