DAVOS – In his first interview with the Indian media, Bilawal Bhutto hasstrongly defended the Pakistan military in its fight against terrorism whencross questioned aggressively, and held back no punches on the contributionPrime Minister Narendra Modi’s India was making to the rise inhyper-nationalist and exclusionary politics in South Asia.

Keeping the need for peace at centre-stage, Bilawal argued that relationsmust not be between persons, but between states.

“Therefore, diplomacy cannot be about private visits and unrecordedencounters but must be embedded in real strategic conflict-resolution anddialogue without conditions posed on the media,” he said.

As news from the WEF dominated the airwaves in Europe and America, clips ofsome good leadership news from Pakistan were like a breath of fresh air atthe forum, where Pakistan is often demonised on many scores includingterrorism.

After Bilawal and PPP Vice-President Senator Sherry Rehman concluded asuccessful trip to Davos, Switzerland, it was clear from local andinternational sources that the PPP chairman stood out as a rising bigvoice, making a powerful public case for Pakistan.

PPP leader Sherry Rehman said at multiple public and private forums Bilawalemerged as a strong advocate for his country to be better recognised as abrave, resilient nation fighting global challenges such as extremism,terrorism, poverty, misogyny, intolerance, and climate change.