Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Sartaj Aziz, Adviser to Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs on Thursday said that Pakistan is mobilising its efforts for membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) and Pakistan will raise issue of drone strikes with the United Sates on Friday (today) in a bilateral meeting.

Briefing media in the Foreign Office, he said that the United States had in the past adopted a transitional policy towards Pakistan, and left Pakistan to fend for itself as soon as it achieved what it wanted from it, while cosying up to it whenever they wanted a favour. He said Pakistan intended to raise the issue with the US leadership to insist on fair treatment on equal terms in the future.

He said the growing ties between the US and India, coupled with Indian designs on obtaining greater, more powerful weapons was affecting the balance of power in South Asia. This could adversely affect the region because both Pakistan and India possessed nuclear weapons.

Furthermore, he said that drone strikes were counter-productive for peace efforts in Afghanistan, saying they had failed to achieve their ostensible objective for 15 years.

In response to a question, Aziz said that in the meeting with Richard Olson Pakistan, he would raise his concerns regarding the drone strike in Balochistan in which Mullah Mansour was killed.

He said that Pakistan was always eager to conduct negotiations with India on the Kashmir issue, but India always rebuffed the efforts, and promised that Pakistan would continue its policy to support Kashmir on diplomatic and political fronts. He said even the American Congress had now been moved to criticise India on its treatment of Muslims.

Aziz added that Pakistan was aware of the attempts and threats to sabotage the CPEC project, promising that Pakistan would counter the opponents of the project effectively. This project also enhanced regional connectivity towards Central Asia, and was critical for Pakistan’s prosperity.

He said Pakistan further briefed and informed the five permanent members of the United Nations, the European Union and other important capitals of the world regarding India’s subversive activities in Pakistan. He said India blamed Pakistan’s non-state actors but Pakistan had caught an Indian Navel Official Kulbhushan Yadav, who even admitted his involvement.

While responding a question, Sartaj Aziz said that Former Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and incumblent Nawaz Sharif this time had always attempted to maintain control of foreign policy, and rejected the impression that Pakistan’s foreign policy had failed, saying no policy could be considered decisively successful or otherwise.

Earlier speaking on Pakistan’s foreign policy 2013-16 achievements and challenges he said that Pakistan is located at an important junction of South Asia, West Asia, and Central Asia. The country could be a bridge between energy rich Central Asia and Iran on one side and energy deficit countries like China and India on the other.