KARACHI: The newly appointed British High Commissioner to Pakistan Jane Marriott, the United Kingdom’s first woman high commissioner to Pakistan, who arrived at Karachi on Sunday, visited the Royal Navy’s HMS Lancaster here on Tuesday.

The HMS Lancaster is in Karachi on a routine bilateral Royal Navy-Pakistan Navy training exercise ‘White Star’, which commences here on Wednesday (today). The exercise also involves PNS Taimur and PNS Yarmook.

The visit is part of a range of defence diplomacy activities as part of the UK’s commitment to maintaining its well-established defence relationship with Pakistan.

Having spent around a month in Islamabad already, the envoy’s visit to the post city made her realise that Karachi is one of the best places in Pakistan to discuss business. She called the city the country’s “beating heart” and home to some of the country’s most pioneering industries. “I am looking forward to hearing from the UK and Pakistani businesses on how we can support each other’s ambitious trade goals here,” she said.

Jane Marriott visits Royal Navy ship on eve of bilateral training exercise

She noted that bilateral trade between the UK and Pakistan had nearly tripled now to 4.4 billion pounds. “I have ambitions for much more than that though,” she said. “At the moment it is primarily about textiles from Pakistan going to the UK, and about metals and parts coming from the UK to Pakistan. But we are starting to look at how we can get to more of a 21st Century relationship in IT services, too. We really need to turbocharge that part of the trade in our relationship as well,” she pointed out.

The high commissioner also mentioned the UK’s humanitarian efforts during last year’s floods. “Last year, we put in 39 million pounds into our flood response, which helped millions of Pakistanis with water, sanitation and shelter,” she said.

The UK’s Ministry of Defence was port of the international response to last year’s floods, airlifting in eight boats and 10 portable generators at the request of Pakistan’s army chief to support relief efforts.

She also spoke about the UK’s investment into specific projects in Pakistan to help deal with the effects of climate change such as reforestation and renewable energy.

About her visit on board HMS Lancaster, she explained that she was looking forward to the bilateral exercise between the navies of both the UK and Pakistan.

She was also joined on the HMS Lancaster by UK’s defence adviser, Pakistan, Brigadier Paul Hayhurst, who said that he has recently received training at the National Defence University (NDU), Islamabad.

Brig Hayhurst said the UK’s relationship with Pakistan and vice versa was very important. “Pakistan is a nuclear power. Pakistan is situated geographically in a very key area of the world, too. We have seen Pakistan adversely affected in the last few years, regionally. The fall of Kabul has also increased terrorism instances in the north of the country that borders Afghanistan,” he said.

“The Ukraine war by Russia has also repeatedly reduced the GDP of Pakistan by about one per cent and no nation can afford that. So it is really important for the UK now, going forward, to continue to develop our relationship with Pakistan to enhance regional security not only within Pakistan but also maritime security. Taking part in Exercise White Star is the latest stage in that relationship as we continue to develop,” he added.

Published in Dawn, August 30th, 2023