Pakistan will not allow any global powers, who are seeking to re-assert their presence in Asia with a view to using its soil as a 'battleground', said a senior foreign office official in an informal meeting with the media.
"We will not allow that Pakistan becomes a battleground," was the categorical stance that came from the official as he added, 'national interest' the foremost element in determination of the foreign policy being pursued.
He, however, said that Pakistan is not aspirant of any role to determine political dispensation in Afghanistan. We simply want an Afghan-owned and Afghan-led peace process in Afghanistan and would provide assistance if requested by the Afghans.
Earlier, this week during a weekly press briefing, foreign office spokesman Abdul Basit had said: "It is necessary that all regional countries recommit themselves to principles of non-interference and non-intervention. Unfortunately, Afghanistan has been a victim of power play for decades for global and regional interests. This, in our view, should come to an end. The people of Afghanistan have suffered heavily and so has Pakistan."
While talking about the recent visit of US vice President Joe Biden, the official said we have conveyed to the vice President that all we want in Afghanistan is peace, stability and a united Afghanistan.
Asked about Obama administration's strategic tilt towards India and its backing for New Delhi's ambition to get a permanent seat in United Nations Security Council, he said that "if that happens then what credibility of UNSC would be left, if there is any."
He gave an account of Pakistan's relations with the US, Afghanistan, China, the European Union and India. Since December last year, a lot of things have happened, as he referred to the recent visit of Acting US Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Frank Ruggiero, US Vice President Joe Biden, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, German Foreign Minster Guido Westerwelle and Professor Burhanuddin Rabbani.
He said that Pakistan has made it clear to all the visiting delegates that Pakistan is not interested in a donor-recipient relationship. "We are the most resilient nation of the world as the challenges we faced in the form of terrorism, floods and other crises are not faced by any other nation of the world.
While talking about the strained relations with India, he said that things have improved a little bit and the foreign secretaries of both the countries would meet in Thimpu. The purpose of these meeting would be preparatory work for the visit of Foreign Minister's visit in the first quarter of the year. We want restoration of full scale dialogue with India and are hopeful of positive outcome of the visit, he added.
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