The Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad, (ISSI) hosted an In-House Meeting with a 4-member Media Delegation from the United States of America on March 5, 2018. The members of the delegation included: Mr. Carlo Munoz, Military Correspondent, The Washington Times; Mr. Bennett Seftel, Analyst, The Cipher Brief; Ms. Kristina Wong, Pentagon Correspondent, Breitbart News; and Ms. Kay Johnson, Islamabad-based Bureau Chief, Reuters.
Welcoming the delegation, Chairman ISSI, Ambassador Khalid Mahmood stated that the global trends are changing, and the most significant of these trends is the peaceful rise of China, and the second is the advent of President Trump which has affected various aspects of international relations. The US has already named China, as well as Russia as the main and potential threat respectively, and as a consequence, tensions have risen between these two sets of countries. He said that while the outlook of the policies which President Trump has adopted is in contrast to the previous administrations policies, however, the general thrust remain more or less the same. The current policy outlook is more militaristic in nature, insensitivities towards its allies, and based on an erosion of multilateral diplomacy. These policy approaches have fundamentally effected not only the region, but bilateral relations as well like that of Pakistan and US, Pakistan-India, and Pakistan relations with Afghanistan.
