Islamabad: Commenting on Indian Prime Minister’s visit to US, Minister of State Hina Rabbani Khar said that Pakistan would always look positively at bilateral ties between sovereign countries and not view them in negative light.

“There is no need to look at anything negatively,” she said in an interview with Voice of America (VoA). However, she maintained Pakistan had very belligerent neighbour who indulged in military adventurism by sending jets to Pakistan in 2019, terming move “Unprecedented” and “Unthinkable”.

She said world must look into this factor and decide whether those being propagated for role in regional security deserved it. “World has to see whether there was conflict preservation instead conflict resolution due to them (India), then it did not augur well for region. We hope that nothing will go wrong for region and Pakistan,” she remarked.

Indian PM is currently in US for his first visit with full diplomatic status of an official state visit. Visit is also third state visit of Joe Biden’s presidency and third by an Indian leader to US, indicating strengthening bond between Washington and New Delhi. About ties with EU, she said Pakistan’s Scheme of Preferences Plus status was not sufficient to define country’s relations with EU as their bilateral engagements were wider and broader at all levels, including business contacts, institutional linkages, IT sector growth etc.

She stressed that such relations should not be looked at merely through GSP Plus lens, but their interactions were much broader. About her recent visits to different Scandinavian countries, she elaborated that certain countries had an ageing population and required young people for various sectors.

Published in The Daily National Courier, June, 23 2023

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