ISLAMABAD: Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said Pakistan has changed its strategy from geo-politics to geo-economics amid ongoing escalation of strategic competition in global powers undermining world peace and making diplomacy unpredictable.
He said “This strategic change has made economic diplomacy all the more important.” FM Qureshi was speaking at the Margalla Dialogue Forum 2021 – Foreign Policy Challenges of the Future in a Changing Geopolitical Landscape, organised by the Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI) today.
In his address, the FM spoke at length on various issues concerning Pakistan’s foreign policy and diplomacy, including the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan, bilateral relations with China, the United States, Russia, and India, as well as the importance of a just resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute for regional peace.
“Indeed, we live in a time of uncertainty. The world order seems to be in a state of severe stress and disarray. In these times, foreign policy and geopolitics are largely linked to geoeconomics. From here on, the economy is in many ways our strategic compass, with a dominant presence as a priority of foreign policy,” he remarked.
The FM said that positioning Pakistan as a geoeconomic centre with unparalleled regional connectivity has to come as a mindset from the top down.
“We have had to reset the existing geopolitical mindset and embrace the importance of geoeconomics,” he added.
The Foreign Minister said that as Pakistan was the fifth most populous nation, with 220 million people, some 64% of its population was below the age of 30, and according to estimates by Forbes and UNDP, approximately 80 million were middle class.
He stressed that we need to tap into this growing human capital and our abundant natural resources.
FM Qureshi, highlighting the benefits of a focus on geoeconomics, shared with the audience that as of November 2021, Pakistan’s exports to the UK had grown 28% in a COVID year.
“Also, since our Engage Africa Conference in December 2019 in Islamabad, trade with Africa has gone up 7%,” he mentioned.
