KARACHI: A seasoned former diplomat on Saturday advised the government not to condone the Russian military intervention in Ukraine, while others called upon Islamabad to take a leaf out of Beijing’s playbook and condemn ‘both sides’ in equal measure.

“Russia may have been provoked but we should not condone the military intervention in Ukraine,” said Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry, who is now at the Institute of Strategic Studies in Islamabad.

During a discussion on ‘Pakistan’s Foreign Policy: Challenges In Transitional Era’, speakers at the 13th Karachi Literature Festival (KLF) urged the Pakistani government not to condone Russia’s ‘military intervention’ in Ukraine and asked them to learn a lesson or two from close ally China that had condemned the US for provoking and allegedly overlooking security concerns of Moscow. But at the same time, they recalled, Beijing had — in a way — criticised the invasion of Kyiv by saying that the ‘sovereignty of Ukraine should be respected’.

Talking about two schools of thought in foreign policy pertaining to ‘morality and realistic’, Mr Chaudhry observed undermining sovereignty and territorial integrity of any country could not be condoned. He recalled that it was due to this reason that Pakistan had condemned the regime change policy of Washington in Syria because it impinged on sovereignty of Damascus.

“We should not support any illegal action against any country,” said senior journalist and author, Zahid Hussain. He suggested it was important for Pakistan to look into the position that China had taken about the Ukraine invasion.

Mr Hussain believed Beijing had condemned the US but at the same time, it had called for respecting the sovereignty of Kyiv.

Another former envoy and anchor, Zafar Hilaly recalled the US broke the promise it made with last ruler of Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev for not expanding Nato but it had expanded Nato more than double.

“Putin has done what the US did in Iraq when it (US) attacked Baghdad by using an excuse of ‘pre-emptive self-defence’,” he said.

Earlier, the former envoy said ‘unilateralism, violation of UN charter/global norms, competition among global powers like the US, Russia and China, trade protectionism and treating immigrants as threats to security and economy’ were some of the aspects of transitional global politics.

In another programme, titled ‘Security Conundrum: Internal and External’, Dr Haider Nizamani who teaches at IBA Karachi said the much-talked recent national security policy appeared to be ‘an advance course on human security’ as it did not tell us as to how to move away from geostrategic to geo-economic.

He opined that this shift on human security would not be possible unless the India factor was addressed and the said policy stressed that ‘normal ties’ with New Delhi would be possible only when the Kashmir dispute was addressed. He also criticised Prime Minister Imran Khan’s recent claim that he knew India better merely because he had been visiting it as cricket player in the past.

Ms Salma Malik, who teaches at the Department of Defence and Strategic Studies, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, called for adopting careful policy for taking sides in wake of evolving of rivalry between the US, Russia and China, ‘as environment is different and actors are different today.’

Published in Dawn, March 6th, 2022