Qureshi’s visit to European countries strategically important with fruitful results: Cheng Xizhong

BEIJING, January 13: Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi recently concluded visit to two European countries including Romania and Spain is strategically important and has achieved fruitful results. This visit fully reflects Pakistan’s transformation from geo-politics to geo-economics, and has expanded broader international space for Pakistan’s sustainable socio-economic development, especially increasing commodity exports and foreign investment. These views were expressed by Cheng Xizhong, Visiting Professor at Southwest University of Political Science and Law, former Defence Attache in South Asian countries in an article issued here on Thursday. Prof. Cheng noted that during his visit, Foreign Minister Qureshi particularly highlighted the Indian human rights abuses in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), enabling the international community to have a clearer understanding of the necessity and urgency of resolving the Kashmir issue in accordance with the relevant resolutions of the United Nations Security Council. At the same time, the foreign minister also highlighted the situation in Afghanistan to gather the consensus of the international community for alleviating the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan. He said that despite novel coronavirus pneumonia and natural disasters, Pakistan economy has made significant progress reflecting a blend of stabilization and is moving on a positive growth trajectory under Prime Minister Imran Khan’s leadership. The final Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate of the fiscal year 2020-2021 is expected to be nearly 5%, which is indeed a very remarkable achievement. Therefore, Pakistan, with a population of more than 200 million, is becoming an emerging economy, he added. Prof Cheng analyzed that under such circumstances, Pakistan needs to integrate with the world’s major economies such as the United States, China and the European Union, especially a substantial increase in the export of various commodities and a large amount of foreign investment, so as to further promote the rapid development of Pakistan’s economy. In that sense, with the enhancing of relations with European countries including Romania and Spain, the strategic partnership between Pakistan and the European Union is entering a new stage, he added. NNI