Daily Times

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has said Pakistan desires peace and stability in the region.

In a statement on Friday, he said Pakistan has played a positive and constructive role in the Afghan peace process but the irresponsible statements of Afghan security advisers are really regrettable which only serve the interests of spoilers.

Shah Mahmood Qureshi said he has invited his Afghan counterpart to visit Pakistan in order to hold discussion on the Afghan peace process and the future strategy.

The minister said Pakistan is focusing on economic diplomacy to address the challenges of poverty, inflation and unemployment. He said we need to focus on economic integration, investment, trade and job creation.

He said geo-economics is the foremost priority of our foreign policy as per the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan.

Earlier, Shah Mahmood Qureshi said that Pakistan attached huge importance to its trilateral mechanism with China and Afghanistan for enhancing cooperation and coordination in the areas of shared interest. In his virtual address at the 4th China-Afghanistan-Pakistan Trilateral Foreign Ministers’ Dialogue, he said the foreign minister said Pakistan had always strived to strengthen its relations with China and Afghanistan in the bilateral as well as regional context. The minister said, “We strongly believe that peace, prosperity and economic development of our three countries are interlinked.” Qureshi further said durable peace and stability in Afghanistan would lead to a conducive environment for harnessing the true potential of regional connectivity and further deepening economic interdependence through use of innovation and technological advances.