Be engaged with US, says Fatemi

ISLAMABAD: Former special assistant to the prime minister and ambassador Tariq Fatemi has urged Pakistan to remain engaged with the US while enhancing cooperation with China. Mr Fatemi was speaking at a seminar on “US foreign policy towards South Asia under Joe Biden” organised by the Institute of Regional Studies here Thursday.

Mr Fatemi said that President Biden had a long experience of working on foreign policy issues, first as the Chairperson of the Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee and then as vice-president in the Obama administration. He said that given his long experience in the field of foreign policy, Biden will take an institutional approach to the US foreign policy towards South Asia. He maintained that while Biden would ideally want the US to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan, he would come under enormous pressure against doing so from within the administration as well as the media.

Mr Fatemi said that a hasty US withdrawal from Afghanistan might not be in the best interest of Pakistan as well because it (Pakistan) would be among the first countries to be affected by the spillover effects of instability in Afghanistan in the shape of militancy and refugees.