Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday urged stronger regional cooperation in the face of increasing geopolitical tensions, including the Iran-Israel conflict and Indian hostility towards Pakistan, stressing that the Economic Cooperation Organisation (ECO) offered the country its \u201cbest hope\u201d for a unified response. Addressing the 17th ECO Summit in Azerbaijan\u2019s Khankendi city, the prime minister said two recent events \u2014 the Iran-Israel war and the India-Pakistan conflict \u2014 showed that \u201cthe forces of instability and chaos continue to destabilise our region for geo-political agendas. \u201cThe evolving global landscape has made regional cooperation even more essential,\u201d PM Shehbaz said while addressing the 10-nation Eurasian bloc. \u201cECO represents our best hope, and Pakistan is a proud partner in these collective efforts.\u201d Speaking about the 12-day Iran-Israel war, he said that \u201cthe unlawful, uncalled for and unjustified Israeli attack on Iran was the most recent manifestation of this dangerous trend.\u201d According to Iran\u2019s health ministry, at least 627 people were killed and 4,870 wounded in Israeli strikes. \u201cPakistan condemns this act of Israeli aggression against Iran and offers our condolences to the martyrs,\u201d he said. PM Shehbaz also condemned the recent Indian aggression against Pakistan and New Delhi\u2019s attempts to weaponise water by holding the Indus Water Treaty in abeyance. \u201cThe unprovoked and reckless Indian hostility directed at Pakistan after an unfortunate incident in India\u2019s illegally occupied Kashmir was yet another attempt to destabilise regional peace. \u201cThe world saw the steadfast determination of our armed forces under the leadership of Field Marshal Asim Munir and the unyielding spirit of our resilient people who stood firm in the face of provocation and responded with courage and professionalism.\u201d India had launched missile attacks on several Pakistani cities after baselessly accusing Islamabad of backing an attack on held Kashmir\u2019s Pahalgam town, which saw the killing of 26 tourists on April 22.In response, Pakistan downed five Indian jets and launched retaliatory strikes on India. It took US intervention on May 10 for both countries to reach a ceasefire. \u201cWe are witnessing a new and alarming trend with India\u2019s weaponisation of water, illegal attempt to defy the World Bank-negotiated Indus Water Treaty and its blatant disregard for the recent ruling of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) are unacceptable and should be rejected with contempt.\u201d Last week, the PCA in The Hague issued a \u201cSupplemental Award of Competence\u201d in the Indus Waters case, stating that India cannot unilaterally hold the treaty in abeyance. However, India \u201ccategorically rejected\u201d the PCA\u2019s supplemental award and stated that it did not recognise the court itself. PM Shehbaz said the Indus waters were the lifeline of Pakistan\u2019s 240 million people and India couldn\u2019t be allowed to \u201cpursue this dangerous path that will be regarded as an act of aggression by the people of Pakistan\u201d. The prime minister also voiced concerns over the situation in Gaza and the ongoing Israeli strikes there, which have killed more than 57,000 Palestinians since October 7, 2023. \u201cThe world is witnessing an unprecedented man-made catastrophe in Gaza, a region that has descended into an abyss of perpetual suffering,\u201d the premier said. \u201cIt is as if humanity no longer exists as famine looms large, while humanitarian workers, including UN personnel, are being attacked with impunity by Israel to cut off the only lifeline of the helpless and starving people of Gaza.\u201d He said Pakistan stood firmly against those who \u201cperpetrate barbaric acts against innocent people, whether in Gaza, occupied Kashmir or Iran\u201d. Regarding the effects of climate change, the prime minister said Pakistan had undertaken a series of climate-related policy initiatives focused on the government\u2019s Resilience, Recovery, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Framework (4RF). He proposed the development of low-emission corridors, ECO-wide carbon market platforms and a regional disaster resistance system. Earlier in the day, PM Shehbaz held a bilateral meeting with Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev on the sidelines of the ECO Summit. The two leaders expressed satisfaction over the progress made regarding investment prospects and agreed to enhance cooperation in the fields of trade and investment. They reiterated their resolve to strengthen the economic partnership, especially Azerbaijan\u2019s investment in Pakistan, according to a statement by the PM\u2019s Office. PM Shehbaz reaffirmed that the recent interactions between the leadership of both countries helped in making the relationship even stronger. He also invited President Aliyev to visit Pakistan. In a post on X, the prime minister said he congratulated President Aliyev on \u201csuccessfully hosting the summit and lauded Azerbaijan\u2019s proactive role in ECO\u201d. He said they \u201creviewed the progress in Pakistan-Azerbaijan bilateral ties, which are growing stronger through our frequent and productive high-level exchanges\u201d. \u201cWe reaffirmed our commitment to deepen cooperation across diverse sectors, particularly trade and investment,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday urged stronger regional cooperation in the face of increasing geopolitical tensions, including the Iran-Israel conflict and Indian hostility towards…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25630,"comment_status":"registered_only","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news-updates"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25629\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/25630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}