US-China Strategic Competition: Options for Pakistan

NUST Think Tank organizes the high-level seminar on US-China competition

Islamabad, July 3, 2024 – The NUST Institute of Policy Studies (NIPS) organized the seminar on “US-China Strategic Competition: Options for Pakistan” on Wednesday, July 3, 2024. The seminar, moderated by Dr. Ashfaque Hasan Khan, Director General, NIPS, witnessed substantial participation by veteran diplomats, public officials, academics, scholars, researchers, and students.

In his opening remarks, DG NIPS Dr. Khan noted the climacteric changes taking place in the contemporary international system like the great-power competition between the United States and China, the rise of new major powers, the increasing vulnerability of the world to conflict and various kinds of disruptions, the emergence of new transnational integration and multilateralism mechanism like BRICS, and the hard choices confronting the Global South in terms of alignment with the US-led global system of alliances or the Chinese system of global partnerships.

During his keynote address, Ambassador Dr. Raza Muhammad, President, Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI), emphasized that Pakistan faces both challenges and opportunities amid US-China competition. He said success consists in maximizing opportunities and minimizing challenges. President IPRI highlighted Pakistan’s unique geostrategic location as a trade and energy hub, its youth bulge as a potential asset, and its natural resources worth trillions as key anchors of a comprehensive approach to national development, regional connectivity, and diplomatic success. He further recommended that Pakistan must adopt a pragmatic approach, remain flexible and adaptable to evolving regional and global dynamics to safeguard its interests, and gradually and patiently emerge as a significant major power respected by friends and foes alike.

During the second keynote of the seminar, Ambassador Zamir Akram, former Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the United Nations, stressed that in the contemporary geopolitical scenario, Pakistan’s options are constrained, making balanced relations between the US and China unfeasible due to a lack of strategic convergence with the US. He pointed out that the Indo-US alliance has strengthened Pakistan’s strategic partnership with China, leading to the latter’s unmatched support in political, defense, economic, and technological spheres, notably through CPEC, worth $24 billion since 2013. He advised that China’s status as Pakistan’s strategic partner, largest trading partner, and the major source of FDI demand a pragmatic and coordinated approach for sustained common development and security.

The keynotes were followed by a full-throated discussion session that led to important insights from the veteran members of diplomatic community, scholars and academia on the need for geopolitical and geoeconomic innovation to deal with new challenges of the 21st century, the dialectics of domestic national management and foreign policy management, the emergence of powers of different magnitudes in the evolving international system, the formulation of new development and diplomatic value proposition to be able to benefit from the current and future phases of the global redistribution of capabilities, the rise of both inclusive and exclusive multilateralism and middle-power strategies to deal with them, the need for the renunciation of zero-sum self-aggrandizement of nations, and the national and global prioritization of common prosperity, balanced development, and sustained stability. There was a consensus among the participants on the urgent need for bringing the house in order, improving governance, revitalizing the economy, and smart narrative-building and media engagement.

The seminar counted amongst it renowned attendees: former federal ministers, Muhammad Ali Durrani, Malik Muhammad Habib Khan and former minister of state for & Chairman BOI Waseem Haqqui;  former senior military officials, President CASS Air Marshal Javaid (Retd) and President NIMA Vice Admiral Ahmed Saeed (Retd); distinguished veteran Pakistani diplomats, Ambassadors Nafees Zakaria, currently Executive Director COMSATS Secretariat, Ambassador Masood Khalid, and Ambassador Fauzia Nasreen; and eminent former civil servants, former Secretary Senate Mr. Iftikhar Ullah Babar, former IG Sindh and DG IB Dr. Shoaib Suddle, and former IG Punjab Kamal Uddin Tipu.