Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan advocated on Tuesday for Muslimcountries and close ally China to work together to mediate and put an endto the Russia-Ukraine conflict, VOA reported.
“We are all worried about what’s going on there,” Khan told the openingsession of a two-day conference of foreign ministers from the 57-nationOrganization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) being hosted in Islamabad, thePakistani capital.
“We should think about …how we can mediate, how we can bring about acease-fire,” Khan said in his keynote speech to the inaugural session ofthe 48th session of the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers.
“May be OIC along with China, we can all step in and try to stop thisconflict, which is going to have, if it keeps going the way it is, it wouldhave great consequences for the rest of the world,” Khan said.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi attended and addressed the OIC meeting asa special guest. U.S. and envoys from other non-OIC countries as well asthe United Nations are among around 600 delegates also attending theconference.
China and Pakistan have not condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Wang met with Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi afterarriving in Islamabad on Monday for the OIC meeting. “The two sides“exchanged views on the Ukraine issue and expressed concerns over thespillover effects of unilateral sanctions” against Moscow, according to apost-meeting statement from the Chinese foreign ministry. Beijing hasdenounced the Western sanctions as getting “more and more outrageous.”
Khan met with President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on February 24 — the daytens of thousands of Russian forces invaded Ukraine. Pakistan alsoabstained from the U.N. General Assembly vote that condemned the Russianaggression.
The Pakistani prime minister has also publicly and repeatedly criticizedWestern diplomats in Islamabad for collectively urging his government in aletter recently to condemn Moscow for its action against Kyiv, sayingPakistan wants to stay neutral and would rather help in any efforts topromote a negotiated settlement between the warring sides.
Pakistan has lately developed close ties with Ukraine, becoming a majorimporter of Ukrainian wheat while relations between the South Asia nationand Russia have also rapidly improved in recent years after decades ofadversarial ties because of Islamabad’s alliance with the West during theCold War.
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*Afghanistan*
Khan also renewed his call for stepping up support for Afghanistan, wherehumanitarian and economic upheavals have worsened since the Talibantakeover of the country last August.
“Finally, there is no conflict going on (there). The only danger now toAfghanistan is that through the sanctions and non-recognition, they mightend up having a humanitarian crisis,” the Pakistani leader said.
Khan said already people in the neighboring country are falling below thepoverty line and there’s brain drain going on.
“So, it’s extremely important that we help the people of Afghanistan. And Isay this because a stable Afghanistan is the only way we are going to beable to stop international terrorism from Afghan soil,” he added.
“Let’s not be delusional that some other country will come and, sort ofthrough drones or something, fight terrorism. It’s not going to happen.”
No country has yet recognized the Taliban as the legitimate rulers ofAfghanistan, citing concerns related to human rights, terrorism and a lackof inclusive government in Kabul since the hardline group seized power.
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