‘Pakistan looks forward to both China and Russia’s support in building Pakistan’s case for inclusion into the SCO at the upcoming Summit’, Senator Sehar Kamran (TI)

CPGS holds a roundtable discussion on SCO ExpansionExploring Future Scenarios

Islamabad, July 7, 2015: In light of the upcoming summit of theShanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), the Centre for Pakistan and Gulf Studies (CPGS) held a roundtable discussion on “’SCO Expansion: Exploring Future Scenarios”, at Pakistan Institute for Parliamentary Services (PIPS). The summit, which begins in the Russian city of Ufa from July 9, would begin the official process for Pakistan’s entry into the organization.

The discussion, widely attended by prominent policy makers, practitioners and experts from various institutions, was chaired by Lt. Gen (R) Asif Yasin Malik, HI(M),  Former Defence Secretary. The keynote speakers for the roundtable were Ambassador (R) Masood Khan, Director General Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad and Mr Andrey Shabalin, Counsellor Political, Embassy of the Russian Federation.

The panelists highlighted the measures Pakistan can take to ease its membership process in the SCO and the requisite strategies to accomplish this. The perspective of important members like Russia and China in facilitating the process was also emphasized, particularly in light of the economic and geopolitical opportunities that Pakistan can offer as a member. The comprehensive and insightful presentations dilated upon the process and criteria of gaining membership as well as the opportunities and challenges that such a measure would entail.

The President CPGS, Senator Sehar Kamran (TI) in her welcome remarks, highlighted that Pakistan is looking forward to the forthcoming summit in Russia, which is likely to mark the commencement of the official process for Pakistan’s inclusion in the SCO as a full member. She stated that Pakistan has a lot to offer the SCO and its member states, as its location provides a safe gateway for trade to member states, as well as the shortest and strategically most viable route. In an inter-regional alignment, Pakistan could also play a significant role for two reasons. Firstly, its role in combating terrorism is vital for the region. Secondly, it provides the shortest possible trade routes to Central Asia, Iran and Gulf states on the one hand, and the Russian and Chinese markets on the other, she added.

Lt Gen (R) Asif Yasin Malik, HI (M), the chair of the roundtable, while setting ground for the debate stated that the world has undergone a major transformation, and this century is an ‘Asian’ century. He emphasized that the expansion of the SCO could play a positive role in facilitating the resolution of outstanding issues in South Asia.

Ambassador (R) Masood Khan highlighted that ‘the expansion of the SCO would provide a perfect opportunity for cooperation between the SCO, NATO and the EU’, particularly as the organization is focusing on promoting a unified agenda in international relations. He further clarified that once admitted as a member, Pakistan ‘would contribute significantly as a constructive partner in the work of the organization’. In this regard, he also emphasized the importance of the Foreign Office’s engagement with its counterparts to ensure the timely completion of all formalities for the membership process.

_DSC7571Mr Andrey Shabalin elaborated upon the procedural details of the admission process for new membership in the SCO. He highlighted certain vital criteria that determine the suitability of an applicant, including the fulfilment of UN charter obligations in good faith and compliance with generally recognized international rules and norms. He also informed the audience of another significant issue under consideration at the Ufa summit; the formal integration between China’s Silk Route Economic Belt and Russia’s Eurasian Economic Union. The membership of Pakistan and India into the SCO will be conducive for the implementation of this initiative.

Kyrgyzstan’s Charge D’affaires, Sagynbek Ibraev expressed his wholehearted support for Pakistan’s membership, underscoring that all Central Asian States (CARs) would welcome the inclusion of Pakistan in SCO. He stated that it would enhance the credibility and regional influence of the organization, facilitate the development of economic cooperation and the establishment of peace and security in the region.

In conclusion, Senator Sehar Kamran stated that “Pakistan looks forward to both China and Russia’s support in building Pakistan’s case for inclusion into the SCO at the upcoming Summit. We believe that both Pakistan and the SCO stand to benefit greatly from such mutual cooperation, and the opportunities that this platform will offer.”

Pakistan – Iran Relations: Prospects & Challenges

Pakistan – Iran Relations: Prospects & Challenges

The Centre for Pakistan and Gulf Studies (CPGS) is a non-partisan research institute established with a vision to innovate future prospects for peace and security in the region and beyond through undertaking research on global security, geo-politics, peace-building and conflict resolution. To this end, CPGS, in collaboration with Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS), organized a roundtable discussion titled,Pakistan and SCO: Building Common Understanding’, at the CPGS office.

The roundtable was organized as part of the Centre’s ongoing project on Regional Integration: Road to Peace and Prosperity’, which aims at promoting a common understanding on issues of mutual interest and explore avenues of cooperation, amongst the states of South and Central Asia. The roundtable intended to enhance understanding about the significance of Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in promoting regional connectivity and building understanding of the benefits for prospective members like Pakistan, and the impact of their membership on the organization as a whole. Two esteemed experts – Ambassador (R) Akram Zaki, Former Secretary General for Foreign Affairs, Pakistan and Dr Mavra Innayt, Assistant Professor, School of Politics and International Relations (SPIR), Quaid-e-Azam University (QAU) – discussed at length the various aspects of the prospective membership of Pakistan in the SCO. The discussion was chaired by General (R) S. M. Owais HI(M).

The roundtable delved into the history of the SCO, its core objectives, relevance in the world order as well as prospects for Pakistan’s membership of the SCO and possible avenues of cooperation.

The SCO is increasingly becoming significant both in regional and international affairs, due primarily to the following two reasons. First, the SCO states have vast natural energy reserves; second, they are a huge market for foreign exports and the third is their increased geopolitical significance in the Global War on Terror (GWoT). While initially the SCO focused more on internal security aspects – like the separatist and Islamist movements inside the member countries, currently its interests have expanded and are predominantly shaped by economic interests, regional connectivity and energy trade.

The SCO’s security and economic interests are now expanding to the South Asian region. Nonetheless, the collective desire to tackle non-traditional security challenges remains at the heart of the SCO coordination. During the last summit, for example, SCO countries focused on the situation in Afghanistan and matters relating to the extension of membership to Pakistan, India, Afghanistan and Iran, in addition to the usual agenda items of regional stability and economic development issues. This trajectory of the SCO agenda also highlights the intention of the current SCO states to develop a regional trade hub that includes Pakistan and its three neighbors; India, Afghanistan and Iran.


Chair
Senator Sehar Kamran (T.I.)


Speakers
Ambassador (R) Akram Zaki

Dr Mavara Inayat


[download file=”http://cpakgulf.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/SCO_Regional-Integration-Roundtable-Series1.pdf” title=”SCO Regional Integration Roundtable Series”]

2015 NPT Review Conference: Expectations and Challenges

2015 NPT Review Conference: Expectations and Challenges

The roundtable was organized as part of the Centre’s Project JOHAR, which aims at promoting a better understanding of the contemporary nuclear debate through converging and synthesizing different perspectives in the second nuclear age. Its aims included understanding the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) debate contemporaneously among the participants; critically analyzing its review process and the challenges that the upcoming Review Conference (RevCon) would be facing. Two esteemed experts, Dr. Tughral Yamin, Associate Dean at the Peace and Conflict Studies department, NUST and Munawar Saeed Bhatti, former Ambassador to the EU, Luxembourg and Belgium, graced the occasion and spoke on the subject at great length followed by a spirited discussion on various aspects of the nuclear nonproliferation treaty and regime. The discussion was chaired by former Defence Secretary of Pakistan, General (R) Asif Yasin Malik HI(M).

In this context, the issues relating to nuclear disarmament, right to peaceful uses of nuclear energy and prevention of the spread of nuclear weapons were very coherently discussed. The main challenges faced by the NPT review process, i.e., modernization of nuclear forces by P-5, nuclear weapons free zone (NWFZ) establishment in the Middle East, progress on the 2010 action plan of the NPT RevCon and Iran’s nuclear programme were raised during the debate. The ‘exceptionalism’ approach exercised by the international community in implementing the nuclear nonproliferation norms came under criticism. The participants observed that the NPT is seriously eroding because of issues of noncompliance by state parties. The emerging geo-political issues, selective application in implementation of NPT clauses and the recommendations of 2010 NPT RevCons may become a pitfall for the upcoming 2015 NPT RevCon.

The roundtable was successful in producing a comprehensive and insightful analysis with the aid ofeminent scholars, practitioners and academics regarding the issues faced by the NPT RevCon process.


Chair
Lt Gen (R) Asif Yasin Malik, HI (M)
Former Defence Secretary


Speakers
Dr. Tughral Yamin
Associate Dean at Peace and Conflict studies department, NUST

Ambassador (R)Munawar Saeed Bhatti
Former Ambassador to EU, Luxembourg and Belgium


[download file=”http://cpakgulf.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/NPT-Roundtable.pdf”]

Roundtable on NPT Review ConferenceIslamabad, March 24, 2015: The Centre for Pakistan and Gulf Studies (CPGS) organised a roundtable on, “2015 NPT Review Conference: Expectations and Challenges”, in collaboration with Konrad Adenauer Stiftung(KAS), at the CPGS office.

The discussion was chaired by Lt. Gen (R) Asif Yasin Malik, HI(M), former Defence Secretary; and the keynote speakers were Dr. Tughral Yamin, Associate Dean, Department of Peace and Conflict, NUST, Islamabad, and Munawar Saeed Bhatti, former Ambassador of Pakistan to the European Union, Belgium and Luxembourg.The event was largely attended by members of academia, government officials, practitioners, journalists and university students. The speakers highlighted the issues and challenges faced by the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

Senator Sehar Kamran (T.I.), President, CPGS, in her welcome remarks, stated that some of the challenges that could endanger the success of the upcoming RevCon, included proliferation concerns emanating from North Korean and Iran’s nuclear programs, lack of progress of establishing a Nuclear Weapon Free Zone (NWFZ) in Middle East and continuing nuclear modernisation programs in the nuclear weapon states.

Dr. TughralYamin, highlighted the opinions of the different countries on NPT review process and illuminated the audience with the past history of NPT review conferences. He also said that Pakistan is not a signatory to the NPT; however it follows all best practices as enshrined in the NPT and related nuclear export control regimes.

Ambassador Bhatti,expressed concerns about evolving geo-political issues which may impact negativelyon the upcoming NPT review conference (RevCon). He said that before 2010 NPT RevCon, the geo-political situation was conducive, which helped in passing of the final document of the 2010 NPT RevCon. Contemporaneously, the global situation has undergone a fundamental change, the US, EU vis-à-vis Russia face serious crisis over Ukraine Issue, the suspension of New START, South China Sea issue, volatile Middle East , Iran nuclear issue, modernization of nuclear weapons by P-5 countries may put constraints on final document of the upcoming review conference.Ambassador Bhatti, also put forth that “the Arab League views the Middle East NWFZ conference as the fourth pillar of NPT”. He said that in the RevCon the most contentious issue would be disarmament.

Chairing the session, General AsifYasin Malik, while critically evaluating the working of the non-proliferation regime, stated that “the norms are used as a political weapon as part of a political motivated campaign”. Stressing upon the need for criteria based approach towards nuclear non-proliferation efforts, Senator Kamran highlighted the discrimination built into theglobal nonproliferation regime, which has undermined stabledeterrencebetween India and Pakistan by engaging in nuclear commerce with India, a state outside NPT. According to her, the nuclear cooperation agreement forged between India and the US, is a clear violation of the NPT’s Article I stipulations. Moreover, she said that “Indian membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) would seriously undermine strategic stability by leaving out Pakistan, which has legitimate nuclear technology needs. Such exceptionalism accentuates regional deterrence dynamics and enhances chances of nuclear competition in South Asia”.

Ambassador (R) Ali Sarwar Naqvi, former Ambassador to United Nation and IAEA, commented on the NPT stating that, “the treaty has eroded from within and lack of progress on disarmament, enshrined in the grand bargain, has bedeviled its review process. Hence, the P-5 should make it less discriminatory by incorporating the changed global realities”.

Commenting on Pakistan’s role in this regard, President CPGS Senator Kamran said that though Pakistan is not a member of the NPT, there are issues in the RevCon that are of interest to us and hence Pakistan should, “while maintaining vigilance, promote the pillar of peaceful uses of nuclear energy”. She emphasized the need to invest in building a strong lobby and coming up with a consolidated policy on projecting the Pakistani perspective as an advanced nuclear weapon state. She stressed that “the time has come to integrate Pakistan as a responsible nuclear weapon state into the international system”.

A lively discussion and question and answer session followed the panel discussion. Most of the participants expressed doubts about the impending success of the upcoming RevCon. In the end, a vote of thanks was extended by President CPGS, Senator Kamran, to the panelists and guests for their active participation.

Islamabad, January 14, 2015

Islamabad, January 14, 2015: The in house meeting of the Steering Committee of the Centre for Pakistan and Gulf Studies’ project SALAM – the acronym of Sensitise, Access, Link, Act, Monitor – was held today at the Centre for Pakistan and Gulf Studies (CPGS).

It was held to review and update the National Policy For Peace and Harmony prepared by the CPGS in the light of important recent developments, including the National Action Plan adoption of the 21st Constitutional Amendment by Parliament and setting up of Military Courts to try those accused of terrorism.

The meeting was attended by prominent religious, philosophical and legal experts and practitioners, besides university students.

It was recommended by the Steering Committee that the definition of “terrorism” as given in the 21st Constitutional Amendment should be made holistic and more comprehensive. The meeting noted that the amendment has certain features which are debatable. However, it was agreed that the government should adopt all encompassing approach towards terrorism. The President of the CPGS Senator Sehar Kamran (T.I) added that terrorism is a transnational problem which needs collective collaboration of the international community as well as local actors.

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