IPRI, USIP holds a roundtable on US-Pakistan relationship

ISLAMABAD: A roundtable conference on the “US-Pakistan relationship,” “Great Power Competition”, and the “Evolving geopolitics in South Asia”, was held on Tuesday; wherein, the Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI) and the United States Institute for Peace (USIP) threat-barely reviewed the level of the existing relationship and choreographed a roadmap for intensive cooperation on a broader horizon.

USIP Asia Centre Vice President Dr Andres Wilder, South Asia Director Tamanna Salikuddin, Acting Country Director Pakistan Imran Khan and Special Initiatives Associate Maryam Kiyani were present on the occasion.

IPRI President former ambassador Dr. Raza Muhammad, Director Research Brig Dr Raashid Wali Janjua (Retd), and Ambassador Asif Durrani also attended the meeting.

Both sides exchanged notes over the Pak-US Track 2 Dialogue held in Oslo in November and expressed their pleasure at the pace of understanding and cooperation.

Analyzing the global competition, they said that in an era of strategic competition, the US should stay engaged with Pakistan, while respecting its sovereignty. Bloc politics in bilateral relationships should be avoided and discrimination against Pakistan in regional and international institutions, including the IPEF (Indo-Pacific Economic Forum), must come to an end, the recommendations noted.

On the economic front, both sides resolved that unilateral concessions and development aid must be replaced by business and market-oriented exchanges with Pakistan.

Pakistan should be assisted in its quest to avert the risk of financial default and the US aid agencies and the relevant departments should support Islamabad in pitching investment opportunities for growth.

The need to develop open technology standards with Pakistan was also recognized.

Both think tanks spelt out their projected policies on India-Pakistan relations and counterterrorism realms and observed that the US should maintain strong engagement with Pakistan and encourage maintenance of the Line of Control (LoC) ceasefire and backchannel talks for crisis management.

The urge for a bilateral dialogue between India and Pakistan was also stressed, apart from encouraging people-to-people exchanges, religious tourism, and trilateral cooperation on agriculture and digital payments.

Likewise, on counterterrorism, both allies agreed that they should take a unified and coherent political approach to reduce terror threats emanating from Afghanistan and combine counterterrorism with political coordination.

The roundtable, while illustrating a trajectory of bilateral relations, agreed that a high-level of structured dialogue should commence and that it should involve honest and candid assessments of the mutual issues.

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