ISLAMABAD: Pakistani and Austrian foreign ministers said on Thursday they were seeing their bilateral ties entering a new chapter with a deeper and stronger economic relationship.

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, while speaking at a media conference after a meeting with his Austrian counterpart Alexander Schallenberg, said: “We’ve charted a way forward in our bilateral relations.”

Mr Schallenberg said his visit would mark the “beginning of a new era in relations between the two countries not only politically but also economically”.

The Austrian foreign minister’s four-day visit to Pakistan, along with a group of 20 businessmen, has been dominated by economic agenda, though he also had important geopolitical discussions with both Mr Qureshi and Prime Minister Imran Khan, especially on the situation in Afghanistan and Ukraine.

Qureshi says opportunities for trade, investment identified in meeting with Schallenberg

FM Qureshi said that opportunities for trade and investment were identified in their meeting.

Mr Schallenberg expressed interest of his country’s investors in hydrogen power, tourism, infrastructure, and green technology sectors, noting that “Austrian companies are world leaders” in these areas.

He said that Austria, in view of the evolving geo-political situation because of the war in Ukraine, was looking for “new opportunities” and “new markets”.

The Austrian foreign minister was worried that the world would be “more confrontational” after the Ukraine war and cautioned that no one would be spared of its consequences.

“I believe that no country can be indifferent to that,” he said in a reference to Pakistan’s neutral position on the conflict.

It is important to understand that “this was not a European war. This is not by far a European war. Don’t get this wrong. This is something which will concern you also,” he claimed.

European countries, including Austria, have been uneasy with Pakistan’s neutral stance. Islamabad has been putting emphasis on resolving the dispute through diplomacy and hoping for the success of ongoing Russia-Ukraine talks.

The Europeans, however, are unhappy that Pakistan avoided a clear denunciation of the Russian “aggression” against Ukraine and abstained from voting on the UN resolution calling for an end to the war.

Mr Qureshi said that Pakistan was not insensitive to the international opinion.

He reminded that Pakistan suffered from the consequences of the Afghan war and said that it had seen “how people look the other way”. Complaining about the West abandoning Pakistan, he said Islamabad had now chosen to “tread carefully”.

The two sides also discussed Afghanistan.

Mr Schallenberg, in a reference to Afghanistan, said it was important to make “sure that we don’t lose sight of other crises”.

He said a refugee crisis was developing in Europe where 10 million people were likely to leave Ukraine.

“We don’t want other migration flows to add to this,” he said, suggesting that Europe would not like to see a situation wherein Afghan refugees also start heading towards it.

Mr Qureshi, according to a separate media statement issued by FO on the meeting between the two leaders, again called on the international community to constructively engage Taliban for a peaceful, stable and prosperous Afghanistan.

Published in Dawn, March 18th, 2022