Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Monday warned that the effectiveness of the post-World War international structures was eroding and states would have to rely on their own strengths and take bold steps to rectify historic mistakes.
He said this at an international webinar hosted by Islamabad Policy Institute on ‘Annexation of Occupied Jammu and Kashmir by India: Lessons for regional security’. The participants of the webinar were from Occupied Kashmir, China, Turkey, Iran, Bangladesh, and Nepal, in addition to local think tanks and scholars.
“This world is more uncertain, less predictable, and for these reasons, perhaps more dysfunctional. The buffers and support systems of international organizations and international law, that helped buttress the post-World War growth and prosperity may no longer deliver desired outcomes,” Mr Qureshi said.
He said, “States will increasingly be left to fall back upon their own devices and bank upon their own strengths. While challenges will persist, there are now opportunities and the necessary political space to take bold steps to correct past mistakes”.
“In an Asian century, we will have to rely on the traditional Asian wisdom, to illuminate the way forward,” the foreign minister further said and called on the world to take a leaf from Pakistan’s four-point roadmap for dealing with India on Kashmir issue. The roadmap includes confronting, exposing and pushing back against India; deterring its expansionist designs; “dousing the fire”; and adapting to allow regional integration from being held hostage by India.
