Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa on Thursday underlined the need for the national security dialogue.
“The role of national security dialogue is not limited to Army nowadays, other stakeholders are in this too,” said COAS while addressing the Islamabad National Security Dialogue ceremony.
He said that the world is facing different types of terrorism today and Pakistan is also facing challenges in the current situation.
Noting that enhancing security expenditures results in killing human development, COAS General Bajwa said despite aggressive neighbour, Pakistan has restrained itself from the arms race in the region.
Despite security threats in the region, Islamabad is spending less on defense expenditures, he maintained.
Commenting on the situation of Afghanistan, the COAS said that Pakistan is playing its due role for enduring peace and stability in Kabul as peace in Afghanistan guarantees peace in the region, he add
He called for a peaceful solution to the Kashmir dispute to defuse tensions between India and Pakistan.
After a prolonged war against terror, Pakistan is about to defeat this menace of terrorism.
He underlined the need for countries to work together to face various challenges such as terrorism, the coronavirus pandemic and other ills. “Responding in silos is no longer an option,” he stressed.
He said the world has witnessed setbacks such as the World Wars and the Cold War, adding that the world was faced with similar charges. Gen Bajwa said history had taught the world that progress has been achieved through an interconnected and interdependent sense of security.
The army chief urged world players to enhance their relations and move towards convergence rather than divergence for the benefit of the world.
Gen Bajwa said Pakistan, like other countries of the region, is facing “multidimensional challenges” that it cannot handle single-handedly, adding that a multilateral, global and regional approach is needed to defeat them.
The army chief said it is regrettable to acknowledge that despite a lot of human population in South Asia, it is still the “least integrated” region when it comes to important issues such as water, trade, infrastructure and energy cooperation.
