Pakistan's new security policy seeks peace with India: Report

Islamabad: Pakistan is willing to make peace with immediate neighbours, including India, under its first-ever National Security Policy which leaves doors open for trade with New Delhi even without the settlement of the Kashmir issue provided there is headway in bilateral talks, according to a media report.

The National Security Policy, separately endorsed by the National Security Committee and the Cabinet last month, is scheduled to be formally unveiled by Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday.

Peace with immediate neighbours and economic diplomacy will be the central theme of Pakistan’s foreign policy in the new National Security Policy, the Express Tribune newspaper reported on Tuesday.

The five-year-policy document covering a period between 2022-26, is being propped up by the Pakistan government as the country’s first-ever strategy paper of its kind that spells out the national security vision and guidelines for the attainment of those goals.

The original 100-page policy, which would be kept under wraps, leaves the door open for trade and business ties with India without the final settlement of the longstanding Kashmir dispute provided there is progress in the talks between the two nuclear-armed neighbours, an official was quoted as saying by the paper.

“We are not seeking hostility with India for the next 100 years. The new policy seeks peace with immediate neighbours, the official said on condition of anonymity.

If there is a dialogue and progress, there would be a possibility of normalising trade and commercial ties with India as it had happened in the past, the official added.

Ties between India and Pakistan nose-dived after a terror attack on the Pathankot Air Force base in 2016 by terror groups based in the neighbouring country. Subsequent attacks, including one on an Indian Army camp in Uri, further deteriorated the relationship.

The relationship dipped further after India’s war planes pounded a Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist training camp deep inside Pakistan on February 26, 2019 in response to the Pulwama terror attack in which 40 CRPF jawans were killed.

The relations deteriorated after India announced withdrawing the special powers of Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcation of the state into two union territories in August, 2019.

India has told Pakistan that it desires normal neighbourly relations with Islamabad in an environment free of terror, hostility and violence.

As the new national security policy seeks a shift in Pakistan’s approach from geo-strategic to geo-economics, there is a renewed optimism of a possible thaw with India, the report said.

“Economic security will be the central theme of the new national security policy,” the official disclosed.

“But geo-economics does not necessarily mean we overlook our geo-strategic and geo-political interests, the official said, adding the long-standing Kashmir dispute with India has been identified as a vital national policy’ issue for Pakistan.