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Hina Khar: Pakistan must solve its domestic problems and step back from a global role
With Washington ready to downgrade its relationship with Islamabad, Pakistan's PM Imran Khan, looking to form new friendships to protect Pakistan's strategic interests visited Moscow as Russian forces invaded Ukraine. In a GZERO World interview, Ian Bremmer talks to Pakistan’s former Foreign Minister, Hina Khar, about Afghanistan, Pakistan’s future choices, and India.
Khar argues that the West needs to accept its responsibility for starving Afghans. Military interventions like the US-led war in Afghanistan, she adds, cast a “deep shadow on the entire democratic value system.” She also thinks that the best way to help end the humanitarian crisis is to talk to the Taliban.
Pakistan's former top diplomat believes Pakistan should focus on its domestic problems like reducing Pakistan's huge dependence on foreign aid, build on its strengths, and secure its borders from threats from Afghanistan. “Our first role should be to our own people,” she states.
Khar, who previously called India a “rogue state” and a bully in the neighborhood, elaborates on India’s undemocratic gestures like the Citizenship Amendment Act and the end of autonomy for Indian-controlled Kashmir, a Muslim majority region long claimed by Pakistan.
The former Foreign Minister further explains that India's anti-deomocratic trends are ignored by the West because "everything that is happening in our part of the world has to do with containment of China."
Watch the GZERO World episode: As democracy erodes: Pakistan’s Hina Khar on “supremely dangerous” global trends
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Pakistan suffered from global role; should focus domestically, says former top diplomat
Pakistan has long punched above its weight in global politics. Yet, former Foreign Minister Hina Khar said her country has gained little from it.
That's why she'd like to see Pakistan taking a step back from the global stage to focus on its mounting domestic challenges.
“Our first role should be to our own people,” Khar told Ian Bremmer in a GZERO World interview at the 2022 Munich Security Conference.
For instance, she thinks it's time to concentrate on issues like reducing Pakistan's huge dependence on foreign aid.
“You know a country which is dependent on the IMF largesse does not really want to have an over-projected role in the world,” Khar said. "Our first role should be to our own people.”
Watch the GZERO World episode: As democracy erodes: Pakistan’s Hina Khar on “supremely dangerous” global trends