New Delhi: Days after Pakistan came out with a dossier against India, the country’s intelligence agency ISI is now planning to brief foreign missions in Islamabad on the operational status at its borders, including the Line of Control (LoC) with India, and its anti-terror steps, ThePrint has learnt.
ISI chief Lt Gen Faiz Hameed is expected to brief foreign diplomats at the agency’s headquarters on 11 December.
The briefing is likely to include details of the “regional environment and own narrative”, besides an operational update on the situation at the LoC and the western borders.
Sources in the defence and security establishment said Pakistan is expected to claim that it is a victim of terror and ceasefire violations by India.
Islamabad recently handed over a dossier to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, accusing India of stoking “terrorism” in Pakistan.
This was after Pakistan’s foreign minister and military spokesperson released a dossier titled “India’s state sponsorship of terrorism”, alleging that the Indian government and intelligence agencies were funding the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and ethnic Baloch armed separatist groups that conducted attacks on Pakistani soil.
India has already rejected the allegations. “Pakistan can cry hoarse from the rooftops. But they cannot change the fact that they are the epicentre of terrorism,” a spokesperson for India’s mission to the United Nations in New York said.
Pakistan deliberates on its foreign policy
According to documents and information accessed, Pakistan is also deliberating on maintaining a fine balance between its all-weather ally China and the new Joe Biden administration that will take over in the US.
Sources said Pakistan’s foreign ministry held an internal meeting last week during which a blueprint of the country’s future foreign policy regarding its relations with the US and China was shared.
Sources with information on what took place at the meeting said Pakistan’s overall strategy will be to balance the US and China by first overtly engaging with Washington and then ensuring that the “overarching” Beijing relations are a little more covert.
The sources also said Pakistan’s Foreign Office has conceptualised the present geopolitical situation in terms of the close US-India collaboration and the Sino-Indian standoff in Ladakh.
It was discussed that fully embracing the Chinese stand would push Pakistan into an exclusively Chinese sphere of influence, which could lead to a direct conflict with the US and, therefore, Pakistan has to adopt a strategy focusing on “balancing the two major parts”, the sources said.
Further, a continued military engagement with China without fully endorsing and embracing the Chinese stand on everything, was recommended.
It was also discussed that any conflict with the US allies has to be avoided while at the same time providing covert support to China on critical issues.
It was noted that Pakistan should be preparing to present any major upheavals within the country in case of a US-China conflict and to safeguard interests in such eventuality by keeping a “minimum buffer space with both”.
According to the sources, a possibility to explore expansion of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor towards the Central Asian Republic to strengthen its position was discussed too.
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