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.
