Pakistan leads regional security dialogue as COAS calls for enhanced military cooperation
Listen to article
Pakistan on Saturday hosted the Regional Chiefs of Defence Staff Conference, bringing together senior military leaders from the United States, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan in what is being hailed as a significant step toward strengthening regional security cooperation and military diplomacy.
Organised under the theme 'Strengthening Bonds, Securing Peace,' the high-profile gathering aimed at reinforcing security collaboration, enhancing joint training initiatives, and sharing best practices in counterterrorism and other defence-related areas, according to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR).
Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir, formally welcomed the delegations and reiterated Pakistan's commitment to regional stability.
'In an era defined by transnational threats and complex hybrid challenges, deeper military-to-military cooperation, strategic dialogue, and mutual trust are imperative. Pakistan remains committed to working with partner nations for a secure and prosperous region,' the COAS remarked.
The participating defence chiefs held detailed discussions on regional security dynamics, counterterrorism cooperation, evolving strategic trends in Central and South Asia, and coordinated humanitarian responses during crises.
The delegates also expressed a shared resolve to uphold peace, respect national sovereignty, and confront common threats, including terrorism, cyber insecurity, and violent extremism.
Participants commended Pakistan's leadership and hospitality, terming the conference an important step in fostering inclusive and forward-looking defence diplomacy.
The event underscored Pakistan's continued role as a key player in shaping a secure, interconnected, and cooperative regional security environment, anchored in mutual interests and regional solidarity.
The development is seen as yet another sign of the increasing profile of Pakistan both at the regional and international fronts.
Observers believe that Pakistan seems to be playing its cards well as it is currently having engagement with all big powers and other regional players.
The Army Chief was in Beijing earlier this week where he held a series of meetings with the top Chinese civil and military leadership. Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar on Friday held a meeting with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington, highlighting Pakistan's diplomatic success.
Secretary Rubio appreciated Pakistan's continued efforts to seek a mediation between the US and Iran while also lauded Islamabad for preserving regional stability.
Foreign Minister Dar told the Atlantic Council later that Pakistan wanted to play a role of bridge between the US and China. He recalled that Pakistan in the past brought these two powers close and was ready to play that role again.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Express Tribune
an hour ago
- Express Tribune
China and America — competitive coexistence
The writer is a retired major general and has an interest in International Relations and Political Sociology. He can be reached at tayyarinam@ and tweets @20_Inam Listen to article Last week while discussing Sino-US rivalry, we concluded the improbability of a war over Taiwan. And although the US leads in many critical sectors, China is rapidly closing the capability gap, as capacity or scale has never been a problem for Beijing. This piece will discuss additional facets of Sino-US competition. The comparison of both countries' national power potential (NPP) becomes confusing, as there are strong arguments on both sides which gravitate to declare either side a winner. In the May-June 2025 issue of Foreign Affairs, Kurt M Campbell and Rush Doshi argue that China has the advantage of 'scale and mass' compared to a 'strategically distracted and politically paralysed US'. They define 'scale' as the ability to use 'size' for generating efficiency and productivity to outcompete rivals. They dispel the notion that 'an aging, slowing, and increasingly nimble China would not overtake an ascendant US in due course of time.' They make the case that on many critical metrics, PRC has already outmatched the US. And even if China falters and slows down, as many pundits believe, it remains formidable technologically, militarily and economically. For China, scale or 'quantity has a quality all its own' as the Soviet leaders used to say about the USSR. To undo the Chinese advantage of scale — the cited writers recommend - Washington should revamp its alliances, shunning the legacy approach of treating allies as 'dependent recipients of protection'; and instead consider its alliance architecture as a collection of 'managed relationships' for pooled and integrated capacity across military, economic and technological domains. They posit that the US must play for 'cohesion and collective leverage' against Beijing, playing for 'time and mass'. The combined economies of America, together with its main anti-China allies including Canada, India, Japan, Korea, Mexico, New Zealand and EU are $60 trillion, compared to China's $18 trillion. In the absence of cited alliance, China is destined to win the race for power and hegemony all over the world, except Europe, where the US power is likely to be confined, in the mid to long-term. Despite China's challenges such as demography, dependency ratio (adult workers to children and retirees), labour shortfalls (compensated by AI and robotics in future) and debt, China will continue to play the long game. Using the World Bank methodology, China economically 'surpassed' the US about a decade ago and is 25% larger today. PRC's productive capacity is three times larger than the US; its share of global manufacturing is 30% compared to America's 15% (projected to come down to 11% by 2030); China's cement production is 20 times, steel 13 times, cars 3 times, power generation 2 times larger than the US. China produces almost half of the world's chemicals, three quarters of electric batteries, more than two-thirds of electric vehicles, half of the world's ships, 80% of consumer drones, 90% of solar panels and almost monopolises rare earths' supply chain. China has helped install half of the world's industrial robots (seven times larger than the US) and is way ahead of the US in fourth-generation nuclear technology. So, rise of the Middle Kingdom to Global prominence is only a matter of time. Realising the above inevitability, another analyst, Rana Mitter in the cited magazine, emphasises co-existence with China urging the West Plus to avoid policies that make conflict inescapable. To him, China ardently follows the Qing Dynasty (ruled 1644-1912) slogans of "Rich Country and Strong Army" and "Chinese for Essence and Western for Usage". Under President Xi Jinping, China has continued to pursue a 'harmonious world'; democracy with Chinese characteristics; and material progress without becoming Western. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has made PRC militarily strong and economically secure. It has pursued the 'Confucian Canon Project', stressing the importance of harmony in public life. China's upward trajectory is likely to continue unless it involves itself or is drawn into military conflict. Although, Chinese nationalists would want Beijing to have a more muscular, aggressive and assertive international and regional posturing, shunning the image of a 'hesitant power'. A conflict would scare away China's neighbours especially in Southeast Asia, with whom China has territorial disputes, driving them to anti-China camp more staunchly. Conflict also erodes China's soft power. CCP understands this, hence, believing in peaceful rise, it would avoid conflict over Tiawan, as argued last week. The Party in all pragmatism, would de-prioritise its quest for unification of Taiwan with mainland and continue with military 'posturing' only. China's present and future leadership see value in 'cooperative existence' within an inter-connected and inextricably linked world. Beijing has recently moved to that position by becoming peacemaker in the Middle East like other cooperative actors Türkiye, Qatar, the UAE, etc, even though their internal policies are not reflective of democracy and other trappings of Western-styled governance. China would need to overcome global scepticism about its intentions, as some analysts argue. And sell itself abroad like America does, despite internal discord within the US over various issues. As the world sees more strongmen in positions of power and democracy eroding, China's humanistic values steeped in Confucianism can lead to greater peace and amity under some sort of 'authoritarian welfarism'. Beijing can champion clean and green energy, for example, humanise AI, emerge as a technology hub and a centre of hybrid cultures fusing elements from China and the West, creating a more peaceful Global Order than the one that brought wars, destruction, pain and suffering. A Wess Mitchel partially emphasises the above sentiment by stressing "The Return of Great-Power Diplomacy" as a way forward. Since the US is increasingly becoming militarily incapable to fight forever wars, especially in the future against China and Russia simultaneously, it must return to 'strategic diplomacy' by containing the weaker (Russia) partner through détente and focusing against the stronger (China) and nudge Europe along. He also emphasises building the largest possible coalition against China, starting in Aisa. From the above discussion, one thing is clear. Chinese power is unsettling to the West with strong contenders for containing it or coexisting with it competitively. Drawing Beijing into war may be necessary for Western hawks, and CCP needs to reckon with it.
Business Recorder
2 hours ago
- Business Recorder
Trump says he thinks US will have a ‘very fair deal' on trade with China
WASHINGTON: U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that talks were moving along with China and he expected the two sides would reach a fair deal on trade. 'We're moving along with China. We're doing fine with China,' Trump told reporters at the White House. 'I think it's going to work out very well. We're right in step. I think we're going to have a very fair deal with China.' US says Trump has 'final call' on China trade truce U.S. and Chinese officials met in Stockholm on Monday for more than five hours of talks aimed at resolving economic disputes with a goal of extending their truce on a trade war by three months. China is facing an August 12 deadline to reach a durable tariff agreement with Trump's administration, after Beijing and Washington reached preliminary deals in May and June to end escalating tit-for-tat tariffs and a cut-off of rare earth minerals. Trump's administration has agreed trade deals with the European Union, Britain and Japan. It is negotiating with multiple other countries to achieve more.
Business Recorder
14 hours ago
- Business Recorder
Trump says Russia faces tariffs in 10 days if no progress on ending Ukraine war
US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that the United States would start imposing tariffs and other measures on Russia '10 days from today' if Moscow showed no progress toward ending its more than three-year-long war in Ukraine. Trump first announced on Monday that he was shortening the initial 50-day deadline he set a month ago for action from Moscow, and mentioned a new deadline of 10 to 12 days. On Tuesday, he told reporters he had not heard a response from Russia. Speaking aboard Air Force One, Trump said he was not worried about the potential impact of Russian sanctions on the oil market or prices, vowing to boost domestic oil production to offset any impact. 'I don't know if it's going to affect Russia, because (Russian President Vladimir Putin) wants to, obviously, probably keep the war going,' Trump said. 'But we're going to put on tariffs and the various things that you put on.' The U.S. president, who has in the past spoken about having a good relationship with Putin, has grown increasingly frustrated with Moscow's refusal to agree to a ceasefire. The fresh deadline suggests Trump is prepared to move forward on his threat of sanctions, after previously hesitating on doing so. Speaking in Scotland on Monday, he threatened sanctions on both Russia and buyers of its exports - also known as secondary sanctions - unless progress is made. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told reporters that he raised the issue of secondary sanctions with Chinese officials during two days of bilateral talks this week. He said he told Chinese officials that Beijing could face high tariffs if it continued its Russian oil purchases. In a post on X, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, a close ally of Putin, said Trump was playing 'a game of ultimatums' that could lead to a war involving the United States. Trump, who is also struggling to achieve a peace deal in Gaza, has touted his role in ending conflicts between India and Pakistan as well as Rwanda and Congo. Before returning to the White House in January, Trump campaigned on a promise to end Russia's conflict with Ukraine in a day.
