Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on National Security and Strategic Policy Planning, Dr. Moeed Yusuf Wednesday said Russia has supported Pakistan’s stance regarding its political map which is according to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions and international laws.
Talking to the media here, Dr. Yusuf said the yesterday’s virtual meeting of the National Security Advisers of Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) has rejected India’s objections over display of Pakistan’s political map in the meeting room.
“Pakistan proudly displayed the political map at the SCO meeting while the Indian objections were rejected by the member countries and even Russia sided with Pakistan on the issue”, he said.
Elaborating the details, Dr. Yusuf said that Russia which was the host country requested all the technical groups of the participating countries to test their technologies three days ago.
He said during that technology test on September 11, India raised objection over display of Pakistan’s map on the wall in its meeting room and submitted a formal complaint to Russia registering its strong protest against declaring Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) as a part of Pakistan in map.
He continued that the Russian friends conveyed to Pakistan last night that India wanted that map not to be displayed during the virtual session.
Responding to that complaint, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Pakistan in its response to Russia clearly stated that the map which was launched on August 5, ‘Youm-Istehsal’ reflect our legal right and is according to the United Nations Security Council resolutions and removing it from anywhere is unquestionable.
He said Pakistan has clearly stated that Kashmir was neither a part of India nor it would be ever. Pakistan’s map truly reflects United Nations resolution and Kashmiri masses aspirations. “We have reminded SCO members that India is violating the UN charter by trying to illegally change the status of IIOJK”.
During the SCO meeting, Indian National Security Advisor, Ajit Doval walkout from the meeting in protest against display of Pakistan’s map when his speech started and even didn’t attend the speech of Russian representative, he said.
Criticizing this act, Dr. Yusuf said that SCO was not the right platform to raise objections over the map as it deals with multilateral issues not bilateral. It is the forum of cooperation and engagement.
Dr. Yusuf said he has focused on four points during his speech in the SCO forum meeting. Firstly, Pakistan being an important member stands with SCO which urges all the countries to follow United Nations norms and principles.
Secondly, it is the responsibility of international community to exert pressure on those countries which are not accepting United Nations resolution and not following international laws to resolve the disputes.Thirdly, Dr. Yusuf highlighted that there is hardly any country that has fought like Pakistan against terrorism and now the whole world recognize its efforts and needs to learn from its experiences.
Fourthly, he said Intra Afghan dialogue was not possible without Pakistan’s role. Now the dialogue has been started and Pakistan will play the role of facilitator.
But if we say if any other country can guarantee the peace in Afghanistan will be wrong and Pakistan cannot be blamed if God forbids there will any hiccups in that process of dialogue, he said.
The world talks of strategic competition and confrontation like our neighbouring country (India) are doing but what Pakistan talks about is of regional connectivity and economic security.
Pakistan is a responsible state and it does not want any conflict in the region and its focus is on economic diplomacy through boosting regional connectivity.
Dr. Yusuf said Pakistan wants to provide corridors to Russia, Central Asia and China and want to use Gwadar port. “We want peace in Afghanistan so that we can have access to Central Asia”.
Pakistan’s focus is China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and having access to Central Asia leading to economic security which is our paramount objective. Pakistan is the hub where economic interests of the world meet not proxy wars, he said.
