By Ajmal Khan Yousafzai
ISLAMABAD: Center for Global & Strategic Studies (CGSS), Islamabad organized an online interactive session with H.E Mohamed Saeed, the Former Minister of Economic Development & Presently Member of People Majlis (Parliament) & Member of National Security & Foreign Relations Committee, Republic of Maldives on the topic, “The Impossible Depths: How Maldives is challenged by the Indian Ocean Power Struggles†, here this Thursday. The Session was commenced with the opening remarks of Major General Syed Khalid Amir Jaffery HI (M) (Retd), President, CGSS. He expressed his gratitude to H.E. Mohamed Saeed, on behalf of CGSS, for joining the international interactive session as a keynote speaker. He stated that CGSS is constantly working on various issues including extensive analysis on the Indian Ocean Region as it is a very significant subject. H.E Mohamed Saeed thanked Center for Global & Strategic Studies for offering a remarkable platform to interact on a very important subject. He stated that the evolving dynamics of Indian Ocean Region are very significant for not only the both countries, Pakistan and Maldives but for the entire region. He highlighted that Pakistan and Maldives share common ideologies and these brotherly ties are bound to grow stronger.
Referring to the 2018 report issued by CNN, he stated that as China grows, India is looking to build military presence in Seychelles. India demands a dominant role in the region, especially at a time when world economy is shifting from West to East. He also mentioned the socio-economic progress that Maldives has made under the leadership of H.E. Abdulla Yameen, the former President of Republic of Maldives during the period from 2013 to 2018. Moving further, he explained the prominence of the Indian Ocean Region by giving statistics that it has nearly 33% of the world’s population, accounting for 50% of world’s maritime trade, 70% of global seaborne trade, and last but not the least that it passes almost 40% through the Strait of Hormuz, 35% through the Strait of Malacca and 8% through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait. An estimated 40% of the world’s offshore oil production comes from the Indian Ocean. He further stated that the dominance of entry and exist points through Indian Ocean will play a major role towards winning the new fundamentals of capitalism in the 21st century. In this context China’s corporate ideology that is the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) will be far outreaching than India in the decades to come. History reveals the fact the India is ruled by 60 million Brahmans. These 60 million Brahmans oppress 1.3 billion Indians, and among them 400 million Dalits and 900 million are the lower caste including the Muslims. He said that India is a democracy build on biasness and racial discrimination, always trying to prove that they are a worthy servant of the West in South Asia by bullying smaller neighbors in the region. The speech of Mr. Mohamed Saeed was followed by an interactive session in which students of Masters and PhD level asked various questions revolving around different themes including the contemporary Strategic Dynamics of the World, Pakistan-Maldives relations, and role of Maldives in controlling Climate Change etc. The session was moderated by Ms. Minahil Shawal Afridi, Research Assistant CGSS.
