Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Friday said India was facing diplomatic isolation and was at the verge of bankruptcy in the wake of COVID-19.
Giving a policy statement in Senate, he said India had strained its relations with all the regional countries including China and Nepal. He said India could resort to a false-flag operation against Pakistan in the current situation. He, however, warned that they would give a befitting and immediate response if India cast an evil eye on Pakistan.
Qureshi said the entire nation was united for the security, sovereignty and dignity of the country.
He rejected the impression that Pakistan has given a walkover to India to become a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). He said Pakistan did not abstain but voted against non-permanent membership of India for the unconstitutional steps
it took in Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir last year on August 5.
He said these steps were in complete violation of the United Nations Charter and international norms and said Pakistan is focused to expose Indian sinister designs at world level.
Qureshi said there was a process to become a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. He pointed out that the membership is given on a rotational basis for a period of two years. He added that Pakistan and India both have held this seat for seven times each.
India had been campaigning to become a non-permanent member of the Security Council since 2013, he said adding that it would not change the stance of the United Nations on outstanding Kashmir dispute. He said the world body stuck to its principled stance on Kashmir and considered it a disputed territory and there were also United Nations Security Council’s resolutions on the lingering dispute.
Pakistan has also started its campaign to become the non-permanent member of the UNSC in 2025-26, the minister added.

Qureshi urges world unity to fight Covid-19

Foreign Qureshi on Friday, highlighting the dangers the COVID-19 pandemic had posed to social and political stability, said it was time for the world community to “demonstrate unity, solidarity, and multilateral cooperation to fight this pandemic.”
The Foreign Minister was speaking in the Video Conference on Belt and Road International Cooperation: Combating COVID-19 with Solidarity, hosted by China. Wang Yi, State Councilor and Foreign Minister of China, chaired the Conference in which Foreign Ministers of a large number of ‘Belt and Road Initiative’ countries participated.
The Foreign Minister underscored that besides causing deaths the “COVID-19 pandemic had shaken the world and led to economic slowdown, bankruptcies, financial fissures, job-losses and disruption in global supply-chains.”
Qureshi underlined that Pakistan was resolutely confronting the spread of COVID-19 and taking all possible measures to strengthen the existing health system. The primary focus remained on both saving lives and saving livelihoods. In order to alleviate the sufferings, Prime Minister Imran Khan had introduced major initiatives including US $ eight billion relief package for the most vulnerable people and Ehsaas Emergency Cash Program to help needy.
It was underscored by the Foreign Minister that China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a flagship project of Belt and Road Initiative, could play an important role in boosting regional growth and recovery in the post-COVID-19 period.
In that regard, he added, Pakistan and China were taking requisite measures which would help in timely completion of CPEC projects.
While supporting the idea of ‘Health Silk Road’ mooted in the Conference by China, Foreign Minister Qureshi proposed that the COVID-19 vaccine, as and when it would be developed, must be declared a “global public good” and made available on an equitable basis. The Foreign Minister appreciated China’s role in organizing the Conference and hoped that it would play an instrumental role in successfully fighting COVID-19.
The Foreign Minister, drawing attention of the participants towards the plight of the people of Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IOJ&K), called for lifting of the double lockdown, allowing access of international health experts to IOJ&K, and immediately extending requisite medical help to besieged Kashmiris.–APP