Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Senator Muhammad Ishaq Dar says Pakistan’s security outlook is focused on maximizing regional convergence and minimizing divergences through dialogue, connectivity, and peaceful dispute resolution.
He expressed these views while addressing the Indo-Pacific Ministerial Forum Roundtable in Brussels on Friday.
Highlighting global challenges, Ishaq Dar said the world is facing rising conflicts, foreign occupations, intensifying major power rivalries, a renewed global arms race, weaponization of cyber and outer space, and the emergence of new destructive technologies. He added that instability is further fueled by trade wars, food insecurity, inflation, widening economic inequalities, energy disruptions, and the mounting impacts of climate change.
The Deputy Prime Minister stressed that these challenges require leadership and dialogue rather than division. He called for renewing the global commitment to multilateralism, upholding the UN Charter, and taking collective action. He said Pakistan supports a stronger and more responsive global governance system, including initiatives like China’s Global Governance Initiative.
Referring to recent regional skirmishes, Ishaq Dar said that despite Pakistan’s desire for peace, certain actors in the region have attempted to escalate tensions through accusations, inflammatory rhetoric, and war hysteria, using these as pretexts for aggression and unilateral actions.
Pointing to India’s actions following the Pahalgam incident, the Deputy Prime Minister termed India’s unilateral decision to put the Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance a grave threat to regional stability. He emphasized that water should serve as a means of cooperation, not a political weapon.
Reaffirming Pakistan’s stance on Kashmir, Ishaq Dar said sustainable peace in South Asia is impossible without a peaceful and just settlement of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute in line with UN Security Council resolutions and the aspirations of the Kashmiri people.
On Afghanistan, the Deputy Prime Minister said the country remains central to Pakistan’s regional outlook. He said Pakistan desires a peaceful, stable, friendly, connected, and prosperous Afghanistan, and urged the Afghan Taliban authorities to act responsibly, fulfill their commitments, and eliminate terrorist elements operating from their soil.
