Biden administration has to recognise Pakistan based on new ground realities, says Qureshi

(Karachi) Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has said that the US President Joe Biden's administration has to recognise the world and engage with new Pakistan based on new ground realities.

Addressing a press conference in Multan on Sunday, he said that Pakistan and specifically India have changed a lot in the last four years, hence any engagement and relations should be developed on the basis of new ground realities.

Qureshi said, "India has changed. Is it the same shining and secular India today? No."

He pointed out that resentment within India is rising and it is "a new face of Hindutva, a new practical demonstration of the thinking of the RSS. "Minorities in India are finding themselves to be insecure."

"The PTI government hoped to engage with the new US administration based on a new approach and new guidelines," he stated.

"I understand that there is a lot of similarity [between] the United States' current thinking and our policies," the foreign minister said. He mentioned that he had penned a letter to the incoming US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, updating him about Pakistan's current policies and looked forward to having more talks on the issue with him in the coming days.

"We have made a very big shift, from a geo-strategic position to a geo-economic position," Qureshi said.

Regarding PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari's suggestion of a no-confidence motion to the opposition's Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) against the incumbent government, he said the Bilawal had hinted at such a course of action during a press conference in Larkana on Friday.

He said the PTI government and its allies are confident and are in a position to confront and defeat it in a constitutional and parliamentary manner.

He said the no-confidence motion is an indication that the PDM is an "unnatural" alliance. "They will scatter and you are seeing that has [already] started."

In response to a question from a reporter regarding reservations of certain allied Arab states over recent decisions taken by Pakistan, the foreign minister clarified, "We haven't signed any agreement that hurts the interests of an allied state."

"We have never done, and will never do such an agreement which causes damage to any brother Muslim state."

He said Turkey and Pakistan had openly supported and congratulated Azerbaijan on its "big success" in reclaiming its occupied territory. As a result of that support, Qureshi said, after Azerbaijan's victory, the flags of Turkey and Pakistan were waved in the streets by the citizens of Azerbaijan. "We hadn't handed them [flags], this was the people's emotions, acceptance and tribute to Pakistan."