Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman is setting the agenda of 2024 United States’ presidential polls. The acumen and wisdom he possesses is guiding him to build a modern and progressive state in one of the most volatile regions of the world. And that demands perpetual peace. Quite aware of that desire and necessity,…
Zhao Lijian, the then Deputy Head of Mission Embassy of China in Islamabad, who is currently a spokesperson of Foreign Ministry of China, to a question from one of my colleague, Raza Khan who is Chief Correspondent for PTV World, as to why we (Pakistan) cannot see China-speed on CPEC projects?, humbly replied, “How can…
Ambassador (Retd) Asif Ali Durrani has been a career diplomat for more than three decades, and served as Ambassador of Pakistan to the UAE and Iran. He was also posted to India, Afghanistan, United Kingdom and Pakistan Mission to the United Nations in New York. Prior to joining the Foreign Service of Pakistan in 1986,…
From Shimla to Goa, Pakistan’s bilateralism with India has come a long way. It has nosedived and hit rock bottom in essence. With bad blood and mistrust ruling the roost, it is difficult to imagine any statesmanship role from either of the ruling dispensations. As Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari air-dashed to the southwestern coast of…
Pakistan’s western border has not been serene for almost four decades now. It has been a theatre of revulsion and an immediate threat to Pakistan’s security and sovereignty. This is so despite a friendly perception being nursed with the landlocked state, and a swirl of unending tales reminding the nation that Afghanistan comes with strategic…
As Saudi authorities gunned down more than 400 Iranian pilgrims during the occasion of Hajj in 1987, it was one of the worst scenarios to set in their bilateral relations. It was a torpedoed mosaic of bad blood interaction since then-on for years, but with only the exception that they did not go to war….
I vividly remember former Indian Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral once saying, “there has to be a dispute between India and Pakistan; and even if they come to resolve the Kashmir issue, they will invent another one…”. Though sarcastic, the par-excellence diplomat was not wrong, per se. The crude manner in which New Delhi on…
Barack Obama, the first Black-American President of the United States, quipped, “In a world of complex threats, our security and leadership depends on all elements of our power, including strong and principled diplomacy.” That aptly applies to the situation that Pakistan is confronted with these days. The fact is that Pakistan has played to the…
Georges Clemenceau, a notable French politician (1841-1929), was apt as he said, “War is too serious a matter to entrust to military men.” But in the case of the Russia-Ukraine war, it seems it is politicians at large who are failing in reading the bigger picture of peace and security, as the erstwhile bloc politics…
Nizam-e-Maikada Bigra Hua Hai Is Kadar Saqi; Usi Ko Jaam Milta Hai Jise Peena Nahi Aata (Anand Narayan Mulla) [The configuration is so disfigured that only those who do not possesses a remedy are accessed with it) Ten cents for the poet, as it navigates the truth in case of Pakistan-Afghanistan relations all these decades….
