Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari has said that Pakistan has no intention of launching a cross-border operation in Afghanistan.
\n\u201cWe\u2019re not interested in launching a cross-border operation, nor would we want to advocate for more military intervention after what we\u2019ve already seen was the longest war,\u201d Bilawal told Anadolu Agency on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
\nTies between Islamabad and Kabul have been far from smooth since the Taliban\u2019s ascent to power in Afghanistan in 2021.
\nClashes along the disputed border have been a recurring problem, while a recent spate of terrorist attacks in Pakistan has added fuel to the simmering fire, particularly in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan.
\nPakistan blames these attacks on the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a group it accuses the Afghan Taliban of harbouring.While Islamabad has been pushing Kabul to rein in terrorist groups, the Taliban deny allowing any groups, including the TTP, to threaten Pakistan or other countries.
\nThe foreign minister reiterated Pakistan\u2019s demand for the Taliban to weed out terrorist organisations and offered to help in any such efforts.
\n\u201cThe most legitimate and the most viable way for us to address the issue of terrorism will be for the interim government in Afghanistan to take appropriate action against these groups,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cWhat we will prefer is for the interim government of Afghanistan to take action against terrorists that may be in their country, and we are ready and willing to help them increase their capacity and ability to deal with that threat.\u201d
\n\u2018Pakistan facing multidimensional economic challenges\u2019
\nOn the country\u2019s economic conditions, Bilawal said the country is grappling with \u201cmultidimensional challenges.\u201d
\n\u201cI think these are incredibly challenging economic times for everyone, particularly where we are seeing the fallout from Covid, the consequences of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and the sanctions associated with that having an outside effect on the (global) economy,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cEveryone is facing inflation and difficult economic problems.\u201d
\nFor Pakistan, he explained, an additional burden has been problems related to Afghanistan.
\n\u201cWe\u2019ve seen the fall of Kabul and the consequences that has had on our economy,\u201d he said.
\nAdding to that is the devastation caused by the \u201ccatastrophic climate event\u201d last year, he said, referring to the deadly floods that claimed hundreds of lives and caused widespread losses that government estimates place at around $30 billion.
\nThis was a disaster \u201con a scale that has never been recorded in Pakistan\u2019s history,\u201d Bilawal emphasised.
\nThe International Conference on Climate Resilient Pakistan was held in Geneva earlier this month with the specific aim of helping our country\u2019s ongoing recovery efforts, he said.
\nPraising Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan\u2019s video message at the event, he said Pakistan remains \u201cgrateful for the consistent support of the brotherly people of Turkiye.\u201d
\n\u201cEvery time the people of Pakistan are in trouble, we have been able to always count on our (Turkish) brothers and sisters for support. And particularly when we were facing the brunt of the monsoon rains and the flooding, not only the Turkish government but also Turkish people supported us,\u201d he said.
\nHe said the Geneva conference was \u201ca resounding success, particularly from a foreign policy perspective.\u201d
\nPakistan went in seeking $8 billion but the pledges exceeded more than $9 billion, that too at a time when every country in the world is facing its own domestic economic problems, said Bilawal.
\n\u201cThe world has stood in solidarity with Pakistan in this difficult time. This is an important message on climate change and it also gives us a confidence boost as far as our economy is concerned,\u201d he added.
\n\u201cObviously, we do have to take all the necessary measures domestically to address our economic challenges.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari has said that Pakistan has no intention of launching a cross-border operation in Afghanistan. \u201cWe\u2019re not interested in launching a cross-border…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4345,"comment_status":"registered_only","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"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-4344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news-updates"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4344","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=4344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4344\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}