Pakistan desires good relations with all countries on equal basis

Answering to a question by IRNA at his weekly news briefing in Islamabad on Thursday, Pakistan's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nafees Zakaria said his government is fully focused on exploiting the potential of the important geographic location that Pakistan has.

“Pakistan is located at the confluence of four regions; South Asia, Central Asia, West Asia and Western China and in that context we want to exploit our geographical location and act as a facilitator for these four regions,” he said.

The spokesperson said that Pakistan can also act as an energy corridor because Central Asian countries have energy recourses and there are some countries in the region which need energy so Pakistan can work as facilitator for the flow of energy.

“Our foreign policy is not just focused on the region but we want to have good relations with all the countries on the basis of equality and mutual interests,” he noted.

Responding to a question, Zakaria said the border area between Iran and Pakistan has many human traffickers, drug smugglers and also the criminals and reportedly they go inside the Iranian territory so the action is taken against them and whenever the action is taken against them in our territory we take-up such issues in our meetings of border commission with them so there would be no misunderstanding.

Responding to another question, Zakaria rejected the statement of Chairman of US Joint Chiefs of Staff in which he accused Pakistan’s main intelligence agency, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of having ties with terrorists.

He said there are no safe heavens for terrorists in Pakistan and armed forces of the country have carried out resolute operations against all terrorists without any discrimination.

“The sanctuaries are in the ungoverned spaces inside Afghanistan,” Zakaria added.

“Our sincerity in fight against terrorism should not be doubted,” he added.

Zakaria said that presence of Daesh inside Afghanistan is not a threat to Afghanistan, but for the entire region.

To another question, he said Pakistan fully supports the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Iraq and this is what Pakistan foreign ministry had earlier stated.

In his opening remarks the spokesperson said Pakistan Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif is currently undertaking his first bilateral visit to the US at the invitation of Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson.
“They held a detailed meeting, yesterday, during which bilateral relations were reviewed and regional security situation, including Afghanistan and deteriorating Pakistan-India relations, were also discussed,” he said.

He added the visit is of high significance as it will pave the way for better understanding and cooperation between the two countries.

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