Pakistan doesn’t want to add new headache
WASHINGTON: Hina Rabbani Khar, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs said that Pakistan doesn’t want to add a new headache of choosing between China and the United States.
She said, “Pakistan has enough problems of its own and does not want the added headache of a new Cold War between China and the United States.”
Khar stated this in an interview with Politico _ a Washington-based news publication. Ms Khar insisted that Islamabad had no interest in picking a side in the growing global rivalry between Washington and Beijing.
The Politico recorded the interview before US President Joe Biden called his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping a dictator at a political event in California on Tuesday.
Beijing quickly responded saying the remarks “seriously contradict basic facts, seriously violate diplomatic etiquette, and seriously infringe on China’s political dignity”.
Hina Khar said, “We have a history of being in a close, collaborative mode with the US. We have no intention of leaving that. Pakistan also has the reality of being in a close, collaborative mode with China.”
Choose between conflict and cooperation: China tells Blinken
China told the US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken to choose between ‘conflict and cooperation’. Blinken got this loud and clear message from the Chinese officials during his two-day official visit to Beijing.
“It is necessary to make a choice between dialogue and confrontation, cooperation or conflict,” Wang Yi told Blinken during a meeting in Beijing.
US Secretary of State Blinken and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi face media before holding meeting in Beijing on Monday.
Blinken spoke to Wang for three hours. Wang’s position in the Communist Party ranks above the foreign minister. Tensions have soared between China and USA on issues ranging from trade to technology to Taiwan.
According to China’s state broadcaster, Wang told Blinken that Beijing had “no room to compromise” on Taiwan.
“On this issue, China has no room to compromise or concede,” CCTV said.
