Pakistan is “not seeking hostility with India for the next 100 years”, said an official in Islamabad while offering a sneak preview to the media of its first-ever security policy.
“Economic security will be the central theme of the new national security policy…. But geo-economics does not necessarily mean we overlook our geo-strategic and geo-political interests,” Pakistani media quoted the official as commenting on the unclassified 50 pages of the policy which will be unveiled by Pakistan PM Imran Khan on Friday. Another 50 pages of the policy will remain classified.
Kashmir will be a “vital national policy” issue for Pakistan, but the new policy seeks peace with immediate neighbours by normalising trade and business ties. “The national security policy for 2022 to 2026 seeks a shift in Pakistan’s approach from geo-strategic to geo-economics,” said the official in a background briefing for journalists. But, he clarified there was no prospect of rapprochement with India under the current government in New Delhi.\
Despite its professed turn towards geo-economics, Pakistan has not yet provided transit to India’s aid of 50,000 tonnes of wheat to Afghanistan nor does it permit trade of Indian goods to Afghanistan via its land borders.
Pakistan’s national security adviser Moeed Yusuf had said in a briefing that economic security should be the core of the country’s security policy.
