KARACHI, July 14: The visiting South African scholar Dr Greg Mills said that relations between his country and Pakistan, which enjoy very important geo-strategic position, would improve once the government here becomes "constitutionalize and civilianize."
Dr Mills, who is director of the South African Institute of International Affairs, said this while speaking at the Pakistan Institute of International Affairs on Wednesday while S.M. Fazal chaired the meeting.
He made it clear that ascendancy to power of General Musharraf, through a military coup, was something which probably created some problems because South Africa had taken a very strong position against military interventions in Africa. Nevertheless, he said the relationship was bound to improve.
Dr Mills said he saw lots of potential in improving bilateral relations particularly economic relations with Pakistan. On the issue of denuclearization, he said that South Africa had taken a particular stance which was contrary to that of Pakistan and India.
South Africa, he pointed out, had unilaterally and voluntarily disarmed as nuclear power, was indicative of those differences. He said that he saw Pakistan as a bridge between the modern world stretching form Japan to the Mediterranean, in terms of linking the Middle East, Central Asia, South Asia and South East and North East Asia, including China.
He said that one aspect, which was quite complex within the bilateral relationship, related to Pakistan's position on the war on terror. He argued that Pakistan was in extremely important and vital geo-strategic position in war on terror not only in political terms but also in geo-economic terms.
"If your economy is growing very rapidly and can continue this growth, the potential for Pakistan as a bridge in modern world stretching form Japan to the Mediterranean is very important," he said adding that South Africa wants to take its share of global responsibilities would engage with Pakistan given the importance of its geo-strategic position in this regard.
Hinting at the great potential for improving bilateral trade ties, Dr Mills said that presently the trade links with Pakistan were mainly in the commodity sector. However, as the economy of the two countries change, this link would probably be diversified, he added.
He said that trade relationship had grown five folds since 1994 and it stood at 200 million dollars in the year 2003. saying that South Africa exports mainly steel while Pakistan's exports are mainly in textile and leather, he said that services sector also had a lot of potential to be exploited.
The scholar maintained that his country's relationship with Pakistan was influenced by some factors among which the circumstances in which Pakistan came into being was the first one.
In view of the changing international environment, he stressed it was important that Pakistan remained part of the South African dialogue, not necessarily in India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) but as part of a governmental dialogue, particularly with Pakistan's emergence from international sanctions.
Dilating on international political scene, he said, "We are in an era of international political history where intervention will become more frequent in terms of humanitarian aid and external assistance for the states.
Now, it is up to the countries to try and work out what sort of non-military tool can best be employed in this regard," he added. He maintained that sovereignty at present meant something different than what it meant at the end of the cold war and before 9/11 tragedy.
"We are not just talking about concerns of the states, but also about the individuals and their relationship with the states. If we are concerned about this human dimension to security, we have to strengthen that link and responsibility.
He continued that the fundamental issue was how to deal with human security problem in a post-9/11 context. The issue could be dealt with in a way that it could strengthen the links between citizens and the states, he said and argued that there was a role to be played by the United States, which was the foremost enabling power in international politics at the moment.
Dr Mills of the view that as long as the capability gap between the US and rest of the world in military or economic terms continued, there should always be a major leadership provided by the US whether Europe or others liked it or not.
"Following the 9/11 tragedy, the US could not afford to be in isolation and its preference was to be multilateralist," he said adding that if it cannot get agreement with Europe it has the ability to go it alone.
However, he said that the cost of this strategy in Iraq had been seen by everyone. "It is one of the interesting dimension out of the Iraqi intervention that it has strengthened the system of global governance," he added.
In the changing international environment, the relationship between states and the markets had changed radically and the downfall of Suharto proved that market could bring down governments.
