"Must Fix Their Plans In Favour Of People": S Jaishankar On Pakistan Crisis

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar today advised Pakistan to "fix their plans and decisions in favour of people."

During media interaction at the inaugural session of the Asia Economic Dialogue 2023 in Pune today, he said, "The country must fix its social and political issues. If I plan any scheme or decision for a country, I must think about the people's perspective too. What they want, they (Pakistan) must think about this. If any country facing a deep economic crisis, not pointing only to Pakistan but, other countries too. They must fix their plans and decisions in the favour of people."

Notably, Pakistan's economy is in shambles and the country is holding virtual talks on the Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policies (MEFP) in order to strike the staff-level agreement.

During Wednesday's meeting, IMF insisted on tightening the monetary policy, while the Pakistani side informed the lender about the steps taken so far, sources told Geo News.

"The Pakistani officials also briefed them on the external financing from the friendly countries including USD 700 million from a Chinese bank and USD 1.2 billion from UAE."

The sources said that Pakistan also presented a strategy to meet the foreign exchange reserves target by June.

Meanwhile, Mr Jaishankar also highlighted the 'Neighbourhood First' policy, the state of the world and India's G20 Presidency at the event.

"If I were to pick three big issues in the forefront of my thoughts, one I would actually reflect on our neighbourhood, partly because we are in the neighbourhood, 3 of us," said Mr Jaishankar.

The Inaugural Session of the Dialogue was a conversation between Mr Jaishankar, Lyonpo Namgay Tshering, Bhutan Finance Minister, and Ibrahim Ameer, Maldives Finance Minister.

The Asia Economic Dialogue (AED) is the Ministry's annual flagship event on Geoeconomics, co-hosted in collaboration with Pune International Centre.

The 7th edition of the AED is being held from 23-25 February 2023 in Pune. The principal theme for the Dialogue is 'Asia and the Emerging World Order'. 

The Dialogue will also discuss themes such as Global Growth Prospects; How the Global South Will Shape the G20 Agenda; the Metaverse: Understanding the Future; and Meeting Climate Targets: The Road Ahead, added the Ministry of External Affairs press release.

Speaking on the 'Neighbourhood First' policy, Mr Jaishankar said, "We have an approach since 2014 called 'Neighbourhood First' Policy. The neighbourhood itself saw a sea change. I am not sure, it's something people in our country fully understand and appreciate. I think the neighbourhood perhaps does more than we ourselves do. To me the 'Neighbourhood First' will be one big, I will say concern, focus and thought."

On the state of the world, Mr Jaishankar underscored the importance of the 3Cs.

"The second would be the state of the world, I think the three Cs is a very snappy summing up the problems which are Covid, conflict and climate. The climate is increasingly an operational problem, not just an existential one because we can see, already the climate is creating disruptions to the routine operations of the global economy. It's not obvious enough to say I have got 3Cs problem, you got to have the solution and I think the solution is also a kind of 3Cs solution which is that somewhere there has to be a degree of creativity, a sense of caution about this world we are entering into and finally, I think that the world today is suffering from credibility issue. So to me, there are 3Cs as a problem, there are probably 3Cs as some kind of solution," he said.

Speaking about India's G20 Presidency, he said, "The third is the G20 Presidency, it's a significant responsibility at a very critical moment and I think there are a lot of expectations from India. We too must look at the world, see how we can use it to enhance global awareness which is very important for India if it is to develop the mindset of a rising power."

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