Pakistan won’t be part of any bloc: PM Imran Khan

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Tuesday Pakistan did not want to become part of any bloc in the region but instead desired trading relations with all countries including Russia.

In an interview to Russia Television ahead of his visit to Moscow, he said Pakistan had suffered in the past because of the politics of blocs and did not want to repeat the mistake. 

The prime minister said the last thing Pakistan wanted was the world to be divided into blocs. He said cooperation among regional powers including Russia, China, and even the United States could be in the interest of mankind.

Imran Khan said Pakistan wanted to strengthen bilateral relations with Russia and looked forward to his visit to Moscow. “Pakistan is a gas-deficient country and the North-South Gas Pipeline suffered delay because of United States sanctions on the Russian company building it. Pakistan is negotiating for the construction of the pipeline and also eyes buying cheapest gas from neighbouring Iran after lifting of the US sanctions,” he added.

Prime Minister Imran Khan hoped for a peaceful resolution of the Ukraine issue, emphasizing that military options could not solve conflicts. “I am not a believer of military solutions but dialogues,” he said, adding that the same solution in Afghanistan for decades could not save the people of the country from sufferings.

He said conflicts could have disastrous consequences for the people of poor countries, who already faced poverty in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

On ties with India, he said his government had reached out to the government of India after the assumption of power to resolve the outstanding dispute of Jammu and Kashmir. However, he regretted, India is following a racist and supremacist ideology inspired by Nazism and denied resolving the issue of Kashmir. He said he would like to have a televised debate with his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, to resolve differences between the two neighbours. “I would love to debate with Narendra Modi on TV," he said, adding that it would be beneficial for people in the subcontinent if differences could be resolved through debate. “India became a hostile country so trade with it reduced,” he said, stressing his government's policy was to forge trade relations with all countries.

Imran Khan termed climate change and illicit flow of money from poor to developed countries as the two major challenges faced by the world. He mentioned that the plunder of the developing world continued as $1.5 trillion was transferred illegally to offshore companies every year, leading to severe consequences globally including rising hunger and poverty.

The only way to remove the imbalance is to make laws to check drug money, he said. Asked how would he like to be remembered, he said he wanted to be the one who made a big change in the lives of the common people by bringing them out of poverty, ensuring the rule of law, and building a welfare society.