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Speakers at a conference Thursday called for co-ordinated efforts between the neighbouring countries including Pakistan, Iran and India to bring peace and stability in Afghanistan for the economic development of the entire region and refrain from competing each other in the race for influencing the war-torn country.
The two-day international conference titled "Pakistan's Strategic Environment: Post -2014", was organised by Islamabad Policy Research Institute in collaboration with Hanns Seidel Foundation. Renowned scholars from Pakistan, India, Russia, Germany, Singapore, France and China presented their research papers during the two-day proceedings of the moot, which was inaugurated by Prime Minister Special Assistant on Foreign Affairs Tariq Fatemi.
At the concluding session, the conference came up with recommendations, terming peace and stability in Afghanistan vital for peace and economic development and trade in the entire region. The conference particularly called upon the neighbouring Pakistan, Iran and India to utilise their influences for bringing peace and stability for a prosperous and economically stable Afghanistan instead of competing each others.
The moot also urged Pakistan to use all its influence for an Afghan-owned and Afghan-led reconciliation process in Afghanistan for the restoration of peace and stability in the country as well as in the region. It also called upon Afghanistan to engage in bilateral and trilateral dialogue with its neighbours so that peace and stability could be restored, which would be helpful for boosting trade ties among the regional countries.
Summing up the proceedings of one of the session, Pakistan's former ambassador to US and High Commissioner to UK, Dr Maliha Lodhi said that the region of South Asia was in a state of flux with competing economic visions being offered for its future.
She pointed out that Pakistan is currently facing two challenges - economic revival and defeating militancy - both are interlinked and one cannot be achieved by ignoring the other. For Pakistan the critical choices are mostly internal, she pointed out, adding that it will be good to focus on geo-economics but the peace and prosperity that are being offered as the panacea needed some strategy to be realised.
Referring to the Prime Minister's visit to Delhi and the hopes it inspired, she said good neighbourly relations were a must but neighbours had their limitations and strategies could not be based on hopes. She further said that peaceful neighbourhood demands on the policies of our neighbours. She discounted the assertion by a scholar that the time of military solutions was over. She said that despite what President Obama had said in his important policy statement at the West Point academy the other day, military component in external policy will continue to play its role.
General Ehsan-ul-Haq (Retd), former Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, speaking as a chief guest at the concluding session, emphasised that all efforts should be directed towards the sole goal of achieving good governance and revival of the economy, adding that the rest could take care of itself. He surveyed Pakistan's strategic environment and marked out the areas of concern in terms of uncertainty that loomed large over Afghanistan where though the Taliban may not return to power but could continue to harass the government in areas where the Isaf had not been able to subdue them.
The fall out of the drawdown was to be closely watched, he said. He referred to US strategic partnership with India and the talk of Asia pivot and China's Asia centric policy, a climate in which Pakistan needed to adjust its seasons. Referring to Nawaz-Modi recent meeting in New Delhi, he said that reciprocity should be the baseline as far Pakistan's relation with India is concerned.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2014

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