Karachi: A delegation from Stimson Center from USA led by Mrs. Elizabeth Threlkeld with her team visited Pakistan. They held two Seminars in Pakistan first with Karachi Council foreign Relations (KCFR) Islamabad and the other at KCFR Karachi. During a meeting at a local hotel at Karachi the Stimson Center delegation stated that USA government wants to see the Kasmir issue resolved, for a lasting peace in the region. She said that Pakistan faces many traditional and non traditional security challenges and that the world is now living in unsettled times globally, with wars causing significant emotional and financial impact in the shape of high rates of inflation etc.

Furthermore, she added that global powers are shifting to countries that according to the US Think Tank, didn’t fall under greater powers list. She said that post August 2021 in the West , a lot of people are finding Pakistan’s foreign policy for Afghanistan very challenging. She added that Pakistan’s macro economic issues have necessitated moving away from geo political powers and having stronger domestic approaches. Her colleague, Ms. Zeba, added that there was a   strategic chain of relationships between USA, China, India and Pakistan where the act of one country would have a cascading affect on others in the chain. She said that  greater power competition  is how the US is looking at competition in the South Asia and that the US thought  China will be heavily armed in the coming years. In response to a question she said that in 2019 because of a host of reasons the US did not step in Pakistan’s  Pulwama crisis. She added that if the roles of third-party crises managers between India and Pakistan are not fulfilled then that this is a very worrying indictor in an increasingly complex global dynamic situation. She said that perhaps this is an opportunity for Pakistan and India to stop waiting for some one to help resolve this issue and instead resolve it by themselves.

She added that the possibility of another crisis moment could not be discounted, post election where India decides to engage in another crisis. She also said that the allegations from southern district of New York were very worrying as well, however it was a a little early to tell what the impact of those allegations would be. Replying to another question she said that Stimson has no official view on the book titled  “The Economic Hitman”, and added that it  was a series of anecdotes from the writers meeting with the leaders who the writer had met. It was added that personally, it was considered that the author’s accusations were a bit far too stretched. To another question it was responded that plants and machinery have more intrinsic value to increase Pakistan’s export potential and that international value for commodities like cotton is very low even though they are important for the domestic economy of Pakistan that was the reason why US is more focused on plant and machinery imports for Pakistan. To another question,  she said that Stimson does a lot of research on policy analysis etc, including research in strategic stability in South Asia especially between Pakistan and India, and a lot of work in Indo Pacific, and on Ukraine war etc.

It was informed that as a rule Stimson does not engage in predictions but scenarios are discussed. Scenario one for Pakistan in their consideration  is that elections will be held on time  and Pakistan will be led by a government with clear and stable policies. Scenario 2 involves an election delay where, without active domestic measures, Pakistan will come back to hard economic times. In scenario 3 the domestic reforms solving problems where Pakistan is not looking for dollar imports but instead improving its domestic capacity. The session was chaired by Mr. Abdul Kader Jaffer, Senior Member Board of Governors and KCFR’s Patron in Chief, Mr. Ikram Sehgal concluded the session and thanked all Consul Generals and guests for their enlightened discussion with Stimson Center’s delegation.

Published in The Daily National Courier, December, 14 2023

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