Islamabad: Pakistan’s Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar stated the increasing global competition between China and the US does not interest her country.
Khar told POLITICO that Islamabad worried about an all-out US-China war. Pakistan would face an unfavorable strategic option.
“We highly threatened by this notion of splitting the world into two blocs,” Khar added.
“We’ve always worked closely with the US,” she added. We’re staying. Pakistan has traditionally worked closely with China, until China became a threat.
Pakistan actively watched by Asian strategic powers.
As Washington’s collaboration with India has grown, Pakistan has grown closer to China, especially after China’s investment in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
While Beijing has committed to increase economic and military cooperation with Pakistan, Washington remains a major military ally.
Moreover, The Washington Post’s Discord Leaks revealed Khar’s conversation with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in April.
While, According to leaked documents, Khar advised Pakistan to avoid appeasing the West and that maintaining a strategic engagement with the US would jeopardize the full benefits of its original strategic partnership with longtime ally China.
Khar told POLITICO that the US was “unnecessarily” afraid of losing its global leadership.
She said Pakistan’s US alliance was crucial in healthcare, technology, trade, and climate change.
“I don’t think the leadership role is contested, until they start making other people question it by being reactive,” she added.
“I believe that the West underestimates the value of its ideals, soft power,” she said, emphasizing Washington’s global leadership.
She noted that China’s biggest selling point for Pakistan was an economic model that lifted millions out of poverty.
