WASHINGTON: On Monday, Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, the country’s foreign minister, arrives in Washington, D.C., with a challenging task at hand: highlighting the necessity of strengthening ties with the United States without jeopardizing the country’s close ties with China.
Friday marked the conclusion of the foreign minister’s four-day visit to the UN headquarters in New York. After that, he went unnoticed for the weekend, which sparked wild speculation in the Pakistani American community. On his weekend engagements, Pakistan’s diplomatic missions in Washington and New York provided no explanation.
Inquired as to whether Mr. Bhutto-Zardari would likewise meet US Secretary of State Antony Blinken during his three-day stay, the State Division said, “We have nothing to share right now.”
However, in interviews with a variety of US media outlets, the foreign minister did discuss his efforts to improve relations between Pakistan and the United States. He talked about how Islamabad was trying to keep good relations with both Beijing and Washington in an interview with NPR’s Amna Nawaz.
“China is a neighbor of ours. They have been with us for a long time. Additionally, we collaborate extensively, particularly in the economic arena, he stated. However, we have also had a relationship with the United States of America since the 1950s. Additionally, we have collaborated throughout history.”
He stated that “we have achieved great things whenever the United States and Pakistan have worked together.” And we have failed whenever we have become separated from one another.”
“I do think it’s absolutely possible for the United — for Pakistan to engage with both China and the United States,” he said, returning to the topic of maintaining positive relationships with both.
Despite denying reports that Islamabad was purchasing oil from Moscow, the foreign minister also discussed Pakistan’s efforts to improve its relationship with Russia.
He stated, “As far as Russia is concerned, we are neither pursuing nor receiving any discounted energy.” On the other hand, “we are facing an extremely difficult economic situation, inflation, and pump prices.”
However, he emphasized to the American listeners of NPR that “we do have energy insecurity.” Additionally, we are evaluating various options to broaden our energy sources.
Musadik Malik, Pakistan’s Minister of State for Petroleum, was irritated by the remarks. He had initially announced that he was in the process of negotiating an oil deal with Russia and maintains that Pakistan is pursuing Russian oil at a discount.
According to diplomatic sources in Washington, Pakistan and Russia are still far from concluding an oil deal, though both parties are looking into the possibility. The conflict, on the other hand, made clear Pakistan’s difficulties in preserving its relationships with China and the United States while also looking into ways to improve relations with Russia.
Another issue that might figure unmistakably in Washington talks is the last week’s conflict of words between the Indian and Pakistan unfamiliar pastors. Mr. Bhutto-Zardari said on Thursday that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was “the butcher of Gujarat” and that he had been made the premier of India rather than being punished for the massacre of more than 2,000 Muslims in Gujarat in 2002. He was addressing Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar, who had referred to Pakistan as the “host of Osama bin Laden” and the “perpetrator of terrorism” for the previous two days.
Source: Dawn News
