ISLAMABAD    -   Pakistan said yesterday that it does not want to be part of any bloc poli­tics in the world.

Speaking at a week­ly news briefing here, Foreign Office Spokes­person Asim Iftikhar Ahmed said Pakistan was committed to have friendly ties with all global powers.

“Pakistan does not want to be a part of any bloc politics in the world. We want to have broad-based, objective, balanced and mutual­ly beneficial relation­ships with all major powers, including the United States and Chi­na,” he added.

Ahmed said resolu­tion of all outstanding issues between Paki­stan and India, includ­ing the core dispute of Jammu and Kashmir, was vital for the devel­opment and progress of South Asia.

The spokesperson said Pakistan has consistently been advocating the need for addressing the Jammu and Kashmir dispute in ac­cordance with UN Security Council resolutions.

He said there is a growing understanding and support from the international com­munity, including the UN secretary general toward addressing this dispute, and international community is accepting an understand­ing of Pakistan’s position on Jammu and Kashmir.

He said Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s visited Ka­zakhstan for the 6th Sum­mit of the Conference on In­teraction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA). In his address to the plenary, the prime minister articulated Pakistan’s key priorities and perspectives on a range of issues - includ­ing the urgency of climate action, win-win cooperation to promote the common ob­jectives of peace, economic development, and enhanced trade and investment, and connectivity in the region, he added.

The PM, he said, also spoke about the Indian atrocities in the Indian Illegally Occu­pied Jammu and Kashmir, calling upon India to respect its international obligations and undo all unilateral and illegal actions since 5 Au­gust 2019, aimed at under­mining the internationally recognized disputed status of Jammu and Kashmir. 

CICA members expressed solidarity with Pakistan fac­ing the unprecedented cli­mate induced floods and called for supporting the re­lief, rehabilitation and re­construction efforts, he maintained.

Earlier, he said, Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari undertook an offi­cial visit to Germany on 6-7 October. The delegation lev­el talks and the press brief­ing with the German coun­terpart covered a whole range of issues from bilat­eral cooperation to region­al and global issues includ­ing Jammu and Kashmir and Afghanistan. Germany also announced additional €10 million for flood relief assistance. To a question, he said the world was re­sponding to the floods situa­tion in Pakistan. He said aid was regularly coming from across the world.

“In New York, on 7th Oc­tober, the UN General As­sembly unanimously adopt­ed a resolution, expressing the international commu­nity’s solidarity and strong support for the government and people of Pakistan in the wake of the devastating floods,” he said.

Proposed by Pakistan, this resolution was co-spon­sored by an overwhelming number (151) of countries from all regions. He said Pakistan had a principled stance on the situation in Ukraine and it was demon­strated in the UN General Assembly proceedings. He said Pakistan-China Spokes­persons’ Dialogue was held virtually on 10th October. “It was an occasion to exchange views on strengthening co­operation in the domains of media and public diplomacy to project the strategic part­nership, shared objectives, and people to people linkag­es,” the spokesperson said.