NUST holds webinar on ‘The Regional Impact of Emerging Great-Power Dynamics’

ISLAMABAD: NUST Institute of Policy Studies (NIPS) organised a webinar on “The Regional Impact of Emerging Great-Power Dynamics” here at the university’s main campus on Wednesday. The webinar brought together veteran diplomats, senior security analysts, academics, experts, and scholars to deliberate on the key aspects of the Sino-American strategic competition and its impact on the region.

Experts at the webinar were of the opinion that the United States and China may have entered the first phase of a strategic competition from which it would not be possible for both to withdraw easily if the strategic consensus both in the US and China hardened irrevocably in favour of its continuation till the strategic defeat of the other. They considered that the regions of Asia Pacific, Central Asia, the Middle East and South Asia, would experience the effects of escalation of competition with particular intensity.

Former Vice Chief of Naval Staff and former Ambassador of Pakistan to Saudi Arabia, Vice Admiral Khan Hasham Bin Saddique (Retd), HI (M), stated that the strategic neologism of the Indo-Pacific was aimed at containing China’s increasing maritime power, especially its enhanced Anti-Access/Area Denial (A2/AD) capabilities.

He stated that over 60% of China’s trade by value was seaborne, adding that in view of the strategic importance of Malacca Strait and South China Sea, Indo-US alignment and the Quad of Australia, India, Japan, and the US remained a serious concern to China’s peaceful development and global peace.—PR

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020