Report – In-house meeting with Nigerian Media Delegation

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The  Institute  of  Strategic  Studies  Islamabad (ISSI) hosted an  In-House  Meeting  with  a  Six-member  Nigerian  media  delegation on  July  18,  2018.  The  members  of  the  delegation included: Jonathan Mela Juma, Acting Director General, National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Okeke John Chinaka, Reporter, Authority Newspaper Ltd. Abuja, Opurum Kingsley Chukwuma, Foreign Affairs Correspondent, Leadership Newspaper,  Sadiyat Inoh Abah, Broadcast Journalist, Africa Independent Television (AIT), Nigerian Satellite Television Station, Mannir Dan-Ali Ali, Chief Executive Officer, Editor-in-Chief, MEdia Trust Limited, Cecilia Umaru Gayya, Director General, Administrative Staff College of Nigeria (ASCON) Topo-Badagry. Ambassador (Retd) Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry, Director General, Najam Rafique, Director Research, Ahmad Saffee, Research Fellow, and Taimur Khan, Research Assistant participated from the ISSI side.

Ambassador (Retd) Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry welcomed the delegation and briefed them on the broad contours of Pakistan’s foreign policy, especially the challenges it faced from hostile borders on its east and west including the situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan-India relations including the Jammu and Kashmir dispute. Highlighting the Pakistan-Afghanistan relations, he focused  on the past  three  years,  especially  since  the  establishment of the new  government  of  Ashraf Ghani in  Afghanistan.  He said that the  recent  border  skirmishes  on  Pakistan-Afghanistan  border  have  been of concern for Pakistan. Moreover, Pakistan has improved its border management system which has irked the Afghan government. In terms of the Afghan peace process, Amb. Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry was of the opinion  that  more  than  anyone  else, it  is  the  Afghan  government  that  has been  a  spoiler  to  these processes.  He  believed  that  rather  than  blaming  Pakistan, the Afghan government should take responsibility and the onus of peace is now with them.

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