Moeed Yusuf’s UK visit called off

ISLAMABAD: The British government on Friday unilaterally called off visit of National Security Adviser (NSA) Moeed Yusuf without assigning any reason.

According to a media report, the NSA was scheduled to visit the United Kingdom next week. Quoting sources, the report said that the visit was called off owing to Pakistan’s policy towards standoff between Russia and Ukraine. The European Union (EU) ambassadors in Islamabad issued a rejoinder to the policy through a joint press statement.

Pakistan expressed its dismay over the statement terming it undiplomatic and unacceptable. Asim Iftikhar, spokesman for the Foreign Office in his media interaction on Friday made it clear that Pakistan had taken note of joint statement issued by a group of EU envoys posted in Islamabad. The spokesman maintained, “We expressed concern over the statement because as I said that is not the way diplomacy should be practised, and I think they have realised.”

He said that since Feb 24 when the crisis brewed up, there had been various engagements at different levels with ambassadors at the Foreign Office at the level of the Foreign Secretary, Additional Secretaries, Director Generals and others.

He said that the Foreign Secretary was having meetings with some ambassadors as well. And this was the normal way of diplomatic activities He said that Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi was also reaching out to his counterparts. He spoke to the Hungarian foreign minister and would talk to other counterparts in coming days. The spokesman regarded an impression as “unfounded” on late Friday evening while replying a query by The News that the NSA visit cancellation was linked to the expression of its reservations about the rejoinder to the EU envoys.