MANAMA: The Islamic Republic of Pakistan will continue to be a strategic partner of the Kingdom of Bahrain and other GCC countries, according to a top Foreign Ministry official in Islamabad.
Sartaj Aziz, Advisor on Foreign Affairs to the Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif during last plenary session of the 12th IISS Security Summit Manama Dialogue 2016 said the Pakistan was the first countries in the region to bear the brunt of radicalization.
Pakistan on Monday offered counter-terrorism, defence and capacity building expertise to its GCC allies and other countries across the Middle East region.
“Pakistan has successfully defeated the terrorism by weeding out all pockets of resistance across thousands of miles of its Northern border with Afghanistan and urban areas of the country. During the marvelous military operation in which about 3000 security officials and 50,000 civilians lost their lives, the country has dealt with the overwhelming threat of terrorism and that expertise can be helpful for our brotherly states in the GCC,” Sartaj Aziz said, adding that the notion of Pakistan has disengaged in the region by not supporting the Saudi led coalition against Yemen, said was not ‘true’.
Pakistan, Sartaj Aziz said, never disengaged in the GCC region but the fact is that Pakistan had never refused to help brotherly States like GCC as due to its internal commitment on war against insurgency and dealing with other geo-strategic realities of the Pakistan. In such circumstances, he added, it was not possible to send boots on the ground for the Arab coalition.
“We have a very strong military and security ties with the GCC countries and for the military training for defence forces of the Kingdom of Bahrain and Saudi Arabia would continue. “We don’t foresee any major change in economic ties with the GCC countries in the wake of persistent low oil prices as jobs in the Middle East are demand driven and if one sector goes dry there will be another opportunity,” Aziz told in a response to a question that may be there will be major job losses for overseas Pakistanis working in the GCC.
Talking about the China Pakistan Economic Corridor or CPEC, Sartaj Aziz said that the development of Gwadar will be a game changer for the region given shorter route to China. “The CPEC will bring prosperity to all countries of the region starting from China, Pakistan and Central Asian States and the Arab world. The new shortest trade link will leave a profound impact on the regional economy,” he said.
In a nutshell, Sartaz said, CPEC will be a game changer and it offers unique investment opportunities. China is investing $46billion on infrastructure and energy projects in CPEC making it one of the largest investments to date on any project in recent years. This project, according to an estimate, will stir hundreds of billion dollars investments in all vita sector of the economies across the region and will create millions of jobs as well.
