Pakistan urges Islamic nations to mediate between Russia and Ukraine
Islamabad, Mar 22 (EFE).- Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday urged Islamic countries to play a bigger role in mediating between Russia and Ukraine to ensure peace amid an increasingly polarized word.
“We should think about how we can mediate, how we can bring about the ceasefire, how we can try and put an end to the conflict,” Khan said in his speech at the foreign ministers’ meeting of the Organization of Islamic Countries, being held in Islamabad until Wednesday.
“I will discuss with His Excellency the Chinese Foreign Minister (Wang Yi) how we can all as a bloc, OIC and China, influence the events in Ukraine and stop this, and have some ceasefire and resolve this conflict,” he added.
The prime minister said that if the Ukraine-Russia war prolonged “it will have great consequences for the rest of the world,” and warned that if efforts were not made to stop it, “there is chance of the world being divided into blocs.
The Chinese foreign minister highlighted strong diplomatic ties between China and the Islamic countries and stressed that over Ukraine, Beijing shares “the same aspirations as everyone else.”
“China also supports the continuation of peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, the emergence of a ceasefire (…) the prevention of humanitarian disasters, and the prevention of the crisis from spilling over to other other regions and countries,” Wang said.
Both Beijing and Islamabad have avoided condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine and are part of a small group of countries whose ties with Moscow have not deteriorated in the absence of sanctions.
In his speech, Khan also stressed the importance of not forgetting Afghanistan and said that ensuring economic and humanitarian stability there would help prevent international terrorism.
“Through the sanctions and non-recognition they (Afghans) might end up having a humanitarian crisis,” he said adding that “the only hope is a stable Afghan government that can take care of international terrorism.”
The Chinese top diplomat also pledged to “deepen cooperation on preventive counter-terrorism and deradicalization.”
“(We will) resist the double standards applied when gauging counter-terrorism (activities), and oppose linking terrorism with specific ethnic and religious groups,” he added.
The OIC is taking place even as Khan faces a political crisis at home, with a no-confidence motion against his government set to go to vote on Friday.
The summit is being attended by over 600 countries of 45 Islamic nations, apart from officials from non-member countries, United Nations representatives, and envoys from regional and international organizations, such as the Arab League and the Gulf Cooperation Council.
Pakistan is hosting the IOC conference for the second time in three months, after being the site of an extraordinary session of the bloc in December over the situation in Afghanistan.
The meeting is expected to adopt over 100 resolutions on a wide range of topics, including peace and security, economic development, cultural and scientific cooperation, as well as discussing humanitarian, legal, administrative and financial issues.
The OIC is the second-largest intergovernmental organization in the world after the UN, with 57 member-states spread across four continents that represent 23 percent of the world’s population. EFE
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