The Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad (ISSI) hosted an In-House Meeting with a 4-member media delegation from UK on October 19, 2018. The delegation included: Mr. Jonathan Steel, Foreign Correspondent, Author, The Guardian; Mr. Peter Oborne, Chief Political Commentator, Author, Daily Mail; Mr. Kim Sengupta, Defence and Security Correspondent, The Independent; and Ms. Amanda Coakley, freelance journalist. The meeting was attended by the Chairman Board of Governors ISSI, Ambassador (Retd) Khalid Mahmood, Director General ISSI, Ambassador (Retd) Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhary, Najam Rafique, Director Research, Shamsa Nawaz, Research Fellow, Shahroo Malik, Research Associate, and Taimur Khan, Research Associate and Media Officer.
Welcoming the guests, Director General ISSI, Ambassador (Retd) Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry said that the world order is in flux; the post World War II order is certainly changing and it is hard to predict what will replace that order, but certainly one defining feature of the new world is the major power competition that has set in. The Trump administration has already categorized Russia and China as its major rivals. He stated that for Pakistan, these are significant developments as Pakistan is not just China’s neighbor, but is also in close co-operation with China. We can see the fallout of any such competition. We have witnessed the impact of a conflict between USSR and USA, the then super powers, when they confronted each other in Afghanistan. Pakistan had to bear a huge burden of refugees and Kalashnikov culture and is still weeding out the effects of that conflict. Therefore, we are concerned about US-China relations and the approach that Pakistani government has taken in this respect is that it wants to have good relations with both US and China.
