ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan said Pakistan wants to bridge the gap between the United States and China, but the country would not be a part of any political bloc.
Addressing the Islamabad Conclave 2021 today, titled “Peaceful and Prosperous South Asia”, PM Khan said: “The situation is going towards a new Cold War and blocs are forming.
“Pakistan should try its best to stop the formation of these blocs because we should not become a part of any bloc.”
Prime Minister Khan said the original Cold War between the US and the then Soviet Union had caused great loss to the world and so Pakistan did not want to get trapped in a potentially new bloc.
Instead, Pakistan wanted to “unite people” such as its efforts in cooling the stand-off between Saudi Arabia and Iran, he added.
“Both countries appreciated that we tried our best during a very critical phase where conflict could have occurred between them.”
The prime minister added that Pakistan wanted to play a similar role in the current US-China relations and “stop their growing distances”.
PM Khan’s commented a day after Pakistan indicated that it may not attend President Joe Biden’s Democracy Summit, adding it would like to engage with Washington on the issue of democracy at an opportune time in the future.
Biden has invited around 110 countries, including major Western allies but also Iraq, India and Pakistan, to a virtual summit on democracy that is being held on December 9-10.
The US invitation had put Pakistan in a difficult spot as Washington invited Taiwan, instead of Beijing, to represent China at the summit. Russia, another major world power, was also kept out. China is Pakistan’s closest ally while Islamabad is trying to improve its ties with Moscow as well.
Policymakers in Islamabad are worried that not attending the summit would give India a free hand, which already has a strong influence in America. But a strong Chinese reaction to the US decision to invite Taiwan made it obvious that attending the summit could seriously damage Islamabad’s relations with Beijing, a risk Pakistan could not take.
China and the US are currently undergoing a turbulent period of political relations marked by competition at various fronts. The US has also announced a boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics over human rights concerns for which China said it would “pay the price“.
