Diplomacy at the UN

The lead-up to Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi’s address to the UN General Assembly session on Saturday may be even more important than the speech itself. It is an opportunity for the foreign minister to shore up existing alliances and seek new avenues of opportunity in his meeting with other world leaders on the sidelines of the UN session. Media attention has mostly focused on Qureshi’s brief encounter with US President Donald Trump at a luncheon in New York. The foreign minister had told the media that he had requested Trump to work on rebuilding relations and that the American president had passed on his good wishes to Prime Minister Imran Khan. It would be a mistake to read too much into this one interaction. Trump exchanged pleasantries with dozens of other world leaders at the luncheon and is notorious for making promises in face-to-face meetings that he either forgets or has no intention of following through on. A better indicator of Pakistan-US relations would be Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s visit to Pakistan last month where he gave no indication that aid would be restored and once again pressed us to take action against militant groups. Qureshi met with Pompeo and his wife at the luncheon too and will be officially meeting him again on October 2, which may be a better indicator of whether there is to be a reset in ties between the two countries.

What Qureshi has been careful of doing in New York is showing that Pakistan is the more responsible and reasonable party in the dispute with India. Even as India all but threatens war against Pakistan, the foreign minister has said that Pakistan will be keeping the doors to negotiation open. Given how unlikely any engagement with India is at this stage, Qureshi’s conciliatory tone is meant to demonstrate to the international community that there is only one side that is sabotaging peace in the region – and that country is not Pakistan. This is important for us to achieve as Qureshi will be using part of his speech on Saturday to push for more international involvement in the Indian occupation of Kashmir. His job is to convince the world that it can no longer turn a blind eye to the daily brutalities of the Indian army. Pakistan no longer need US aid, which has all but eliminated its leverage over us, but if our voice is to be amplified on issues like Kashmir it is still important to have normalised relations with the most powerful country in the world. To work towards that goal has to be the main focus of the foreign minister at the UN.