Ms. Elizabeth Horst, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State,
Mr. Ghazanfar Hashmi, President International Academy of Letters
Mr. Nasruddin Rupani, Chairman Rupani Foundation
Mr. Faisal Momin, President Ismaili Council for the Southwestern USA
Mr. Murad Ajani, former President Ismaili Council for the Southwestern USA
Ladies and Gentlemen:
Good Morning
I start my remarks by thanking the United States for supporting the approval of Pakistan’s $ 3 billion Stand-By Arrangement (SBA) with the IMF. We deeply appreciate Secretary Blinken’s supportive statement on Pakistan-US relations and Pakistan’s economic development.
From this platform, I convey my gratitude to Pakistani-American leaders for reaching out to US Senators and Congressmen to add their voices to the calls for early approval of IMF’s Pakistan package.
Let me assure you all, that we are committed to moving our economy to macroeconomic stability and sustainable growth. To achieve these goals, we are undertaking ambitious reforms.
I would say Pakistan-United States relationship is known for its longevity and resilience. We have brought this decades-old bond from the Cold War to this new technological age. The spirit of solidarity survives. It should now thrive!
Today we are focusing on The Future of Pakistan-US Relations: A Way Forward. This discourse, I believe, should be premised on four postulates:
One, Pakistan and the US have a rich legacy of a cooperative relationship that provides a basis for building our ties in the emerging global and regional geo-political milieu. We also know how to resolve our differences, which can arise in any relationship from time to time.
Two, while Pakistan-US economic partnership is the core of our engagement, security cooperation is equally important. Together, we will continue to work for peace and stability in the region.
Three, third country considerations should not impinge on our bilateral metrics, but be referred to each other, whenever such need arises.
Four, we will promote our shared values of human rights, rule of law, access to justice and prosperity for all in the bilateral and multilateral forums.
Last year, we welcomed the US announcement that it would no more look at Pakistan through the prism of Afghanistan, India or even China. Now we are engaged in shaping a broad-based relationship. Pakistan continues to be a regional power at the heart of a complex neighborhood and Eurasian chessboard abutting East, West, South and South West Asia and the Middle East.
It is important that the security and non-security realms of our partnership move in tandem. The bandwidth for security cooperation should increase in due course for mutual benefit. There is unfinished agenda in the security realm; and we have to go a long way to build our economic partnership.
Within this framework, Pakistan and the US have agreed to make joint efforts to prevent and combat terrorism and violent extremism, which is a bane for any society or vicinity. In the recent dialogues, we have resolved to counter regional and global threats.
After US withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021, terrorism led by ISIS-K and TTP resurged with vengeance. We are facing a potent and deadly threat from Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan, equipped with the most sophisticated weapons and military equipment left behind by the US forces. Their attacks from Afghan soil have killed more than 1200 security personnel and civilians. We oppose this wave of terrorism and will dismantle its network.
In this context, it is important to start US counterterrorism programs for Pakistan’s capacity enhancement.
Stabilization of Afghanistan is important for Pakistan and the US; and we have welcomed the United States’ direct contacts with the Afghan cabinet ministers, in addition to ours, even as we have urged the Afghan Interim Government to restore women’s rights to education and employment.
The United States has chosen friends within the setting of the Indo-Pacific Strategy, whose declared vectors of invest, align and compete, we are told are not designed to alienate or confront other countries in the region and beyond.
Pakistan has pursued connectivity through the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor to leverage our economic geography. Our defense and economic ties with China will continue.
Simultaneously, we are working with the US to ensure vigorous growth of our security and economic relations. This is not a zero-sum, binary choice, as the US itself has repeatedly said. We welcome the United States’ enhanced participation in Pakistan’s infrastructure development, energy projects, agriculture, industry and supply chains.
In the larger interest of humanity, the world should not be divided into bipolar camps, once again. In that context, we applaud high level contacts between the United States and China to reduce stress in their bilateral relations.
It is important that the strategic balance in South Asia is re-established, along with a quest for peace, so that the region does not remain a potential tinderbox. We should resort to bilateral, third party and multilateral diplomacy to resolve the Jammu and Kashmir dispute and ensure nuclear stability.
A successful mid-level defense dialogue was concluded recently. The residual restrictions under Foreign Military Sales (FMS) and Foreign Military Financing (FMF) on Pakistan’s acquisition of US military articles and technology should be eased and procurements expedited to buttress our defense capability.
We know relationships are not built on romanticism alone. Realpolitik drives them. We know that, in addition to ideology, economic heft determines political clout in the new multipolar matrix, as probably always.
So let me turn to the bread-and-butter issues.
In the past six months, Pakistan and the United States have held intensive dialogues and took decisions on stepping up cooperation in climate change, energy, health, trade and investment.
On climate change, we are working on mitigation and adaptation, energy transition, water management, clean air, climate smart agriculture, biodiversity and waste management, including of plastics. Under the bannerof Green Alliance our two countries are partnering to modernize Pakistan’s agriculture, develop high yield, climate-resilient seeds and improve fertilizer efficiency. We appreciatethe US support to Pakistan to restore the ecological health of the Indus River Basin and its offer to share weather data on glacial melt.
In the energy sector, the emphasis is on renewables, especially solar and wind power. The US has contributed substantially to Pakistan’s energy grid by investing in Mangla, Tarbela and Gomal Zam dams; and now 5 wind power projects in Jhimpir corridor. Electrical vehicles are gaining market share in Pakistan and we are committed to increasing renewables in our energy mix to 60% by 2030. The time is ripe for the US industry’s support for green public transport infrastructure in Pakistan.
In February this year, we held the 9th meeting of the Pakistan-US Trade and Investment Framework (TIFA) Council, after a lapse of eight years. The Pakistan side was led by our Commerce Minister Syed Naveed Qamar and the US by USTR Ambassador Catherine Tai. The emphasis was on agricultural and digital trade, regulatory practices, intellectual property protection and enforcement, and women’s economic empowerment.
Matters related to US beef’s access to Pakistan were resolved and fresh engagement began for export of Pakistani mangoes and dates to the US. It was also agreed that Pakistan would diversify its supply chains and make them more inclusive.
Since last year, Pakistan and the US have held two ministerial health dialogues, the last one on June 8. We value the US assistance to Pakistan in combating infectious and non-communicable diseases, reducing malnutrition, healthcare, and quality health services.
We have also done some exploratory work for establishing a Center for Disease Surveillance in Pakistan and vaccine manufacturing to prepare for and fight pandemics. Seventy-nine million Covid vaccines donated by the US saved millions of lives and so has the financial and technical assistance for clean drinking water and sanitation.
Thank you, United States for standing by during the devastating floods last year and helping us with reconstruction.
Pakistan is making a major shift towards geoeconomics. We need US support, and indeed of our diaspora, in this transition.
In this endeavour, we would count on the US to help us enhance our absorptive capacity for new technologies, especially in the IT sector.
In the recent round of TIFA talks we have smoothed over some disparities in regard to transfer of agricultural technology, such as GMO seeds for cotton, wheat and other crops.
Once our ongoing multiple dialogue processes with the US mature, we should aim at higher level, structured and periodic engagement on defense, security and economic partnership.
In the meantime, we would sustain and upgrade a knowledge corridor to the US for higher education and knowledge creation. We will send more students for doctoral degrees in the American Universities. Besides, with the help of the US Government, partnerships are being promoted between the University of Oregon and the University of Karakoram, University of Nebraska and Shaheed Benazir Women’s University, and Universities of North Carolina and Texas A&M and their counterparts in Pakistan. The University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, works closely with U.C. Davis. This is just the beginning.
The US Venture Capital Funds – such as Kleiner Perkins, Dragoneer, Acrew and Tiger Global – and Pakistani-American tech entrepreneurs have contributed substantially to the tech startups boom in Pakistan in the past two years. In Pakistan, National Incubation Centers (NICs) and Business Incubation Centers (BICs) are fostering innovation and entrepreneurship and providing resources and mentoring to startups. Freelancing, e-commence and cloud computing have started off a digital revolution in Pakistan making it a hub for an ever-growing and integrative business ecosystem of Central Asia, West Asia, Middle East and North Africa. The US should have a bigger footprint in this market.
For enhancing people to people contacts and exchange of students, academics, business leaders and professionals, our two countries need to liberalize visa regimes.
Pakistan’s priorities are to improve ease of doing business, streamline regulations, ensure timely repatriation of profits, make trade dispute settlement efficient, and protect and enforce intellectual property. This is work in progress.
Speaking to Pakistani-American diaspora I would say you are a bridge, a catalyst and a launching pad for Pak-US relations. From a few thousand in the 1960s, your number has increased to 629,000 (We have checked this figure with the US Statistics Bureau’s Census data). And probably you are much more, say a million. You have scaled heights, beyond our imagination and expectation, here in the United States’ hospitable and fertile environment.
You are investing back in Pakistan in healthcare, pharmaceuticals, diagnostics, telemedicine, healthtech, ed-tech and fintech, real estate, and medical transcription and billing, to name a few. You have been putting bread on the table of your compatriots. Keep investing. The sky is the limit.
You are free to go to your motherland, with full confidence, on NICOP. And there are no lists of overseas Pakistanis prepared for special screening. These are rumors. Don’t pay heed to them. You are as secure there, as you are here.
Pakistan hosts 80 American enterprises that give jobs to some 150,000 Pakistanis. Leading American companies in Pakistan include Pepsi, Coco-Cola, General Electric, Abbot, Proctor and Gamble, Pfizer, Wabtac, Honeywell, Dupont, Oracle, Microsoft, Dell, IBM, Caterpillar, Cargill, McDonalds, Pizza Hut, and Domino’s Pizza. All these businesses find our expanding market rewarding. Even during the pandemic, they earned profits. They are going to stay there and diversify their products.
The United States continues to remain the single largest export market for Pakistan. Despite the slow GDP growth this past year, Pakistan-US trade does not seem to have been affected significantly. Last fiscal year’s full figures are not in yet, but from July 2022 to May 2023, our total exports to the US are $ 7.5 billion, with $ 5.5 billion for commodities and $ 2 billion for services, including IT.
Against this, US exports to Pakistan stand at $ 2 billion. In the same period, the US FDI to Pakistan has been $ 110 million, compared to last year’s $112 million. Diaspora’s remittances from the US were $ 2.8 billion, the same as last year, with one month to go. There is no reason for doom and gloom. We are standing on our feet.
As forecast by the World Bank, Pakistan could be amongst the top ten economies in 2047, when it will complete 100 years of its independence. Our population of 230 million, growing human capital, and the youth bulge, growing number of women in workforce, all hold that promise. To achieve this goal, we are embarking on a comprehensive reform agenda. We have to deliver on tax regime. The World Bank is helping us with GST harmonization. In Pakistan, we have recently established a Special Investment Facilitation Council to fast-track decisions and remove hurdles that investors face.
Probably, inspired by that, Dr. Asif Qadeer will be announcing today formation of an International Investment Facilitation Council USA. I do not want to steel your thunder, but congratulations, Dr. Qadeer, on the initiative.
Those looking at Pak-US relationship can be put in three categories. Those who have firm faith in it and work for its richer dividends. Agnostics and sceptics who say it might not go a long distance. And those who do not want it to cover any distance. We all assembled here today belong in the first category. We have faith in Pakistan-US partnership; we will make it work and flourish!
Pak-US ties have a bright future.
Thank you, Ladies and Gentlemen.