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Pakistans plea for enhanced access to western markets
By Masood Haider
Thursday, 23 Sep, 2010
Pakistani Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi, left, responds to a question from Foreign Relations Council board member Jami, Miscik at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. - Photo by AP.
NEW YORK: Making a compelling case for opening foreign markets to Pakistani manufactured goods, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has said the matter should be treated as a national security imperative and not just an economic issue.
Addressing members of the Council on Foreign Relations in New York on Tuesday, Mr Qureshi said enhanced access for Pakistani products, with all the liberating effects of freer trade and commerce, should be seen as a strategic imperative.
He said: The opening of markets to Pakistan will accelerate and catalyse the process of societal transformation in our part of the world. Without firing a single bullet, we will score an important and perhaps decisive victory in the struggle for hearts and minds.
The calculus is simple; the arithmetic clear, he said, asking the council to conduct a cost-benefit analysis of such a policy option.
Mr Qureshi was confident of a long-term Pakistan-US partnership to the benefit of both nations.
The United States, he said, fully understood that only an economically and politically stable Pakistan could contain the threat of terrorism and that it was in the national interest of the United States and of world peace.
Working with the Obama administration in an elevated Strategic Dialogue over the last year, we have redefined a mature, sustained, long-term economic and political partnership. Our partnership is based on shared values, common goals and common interests.
In a year, this new partnership had made tangible headway, he observed. Pakistan-US relations now have a definite direction and depth. It is multi-dimensional; and has institutional underpinnings that were hitherto missing.
Between last October and now, two sessions of an overhauled and expanded Strategic Dialogue have not only helped bring into sharper focus our common objectives, but also provided means to address them.
Nearly all of the thirteen sectoral tracks under the Strategic Dialogue, he said, had made appreciable progress and set achievable benchmarks.
DAWN.COM | Front Page | Pakistan?s plea for enhanced access to western markets
By Masood Haider
Thursday, 23 Sep, 2010
Pakistani Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi, left, responds to a question from Foreign Relations Council board member Jami, Miscik at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. - Photo by AP.
NEW YORK: Making a compelling case for opening foreign markets to Pakistani manufactured goods, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has said the matter should be treated as a national security imperative and not just an economic issue.
Addressing members of the Council on Foreign Relations in New York on Tuesday, Mr Qureshi said enhanced access for Pakistani products, with all the liberating effects of freer trade and commerce, should be seen as a strategic imperative.
He said: The opening of markets to Pakistan will accelerate and catalyse the process of societal transformation in our part of the world. Without firing a single bullet, we will score an important and perhaps decisive victory in the struggle for hearts and minds.
The calculus is simple; the arithmetic clear, he said, asking the council to conduct a cost-benefit analysis of such a policy option.
Mr Qureshi was confident of a long-term Pakistan-US partnership to the benefit of both nations.
The United States, he said, fully understood that only an economically and politically stable Pakistan could contain the threat of terrorism and that it was in the national interest of the United States and of world peace.
Working with the Obama administration in an elevated Strategic Dialogue over the last year, we have redefined a mature, sustained, long-term economic and political partnership. Our partnership is based on shared values, common goals and common interests.
In a year, this new partnership had made tangible headway, he observed. Pakistan-US relations now have a definite direction and depth. It is multi-dimensional; and has institutional underpinnings that were hitherto missing.
Between last October and now, two sessions of an overhauled and expanded Strategic Dialogue have not only helped bring into sharper focus our common objectives, but also provided means to address them.
Nearly all of the thirteen sectoral tracks under the Strategic Dialogue, he said, had made appreciable progress and set achievable benchmarks.
DAWN.COM | Front Page | Pakistan?s plea for enhanced access to western markets
