KARACHI: Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has said that Pakistan is no more reliant on the United States for its military requirement and will reach out to others if one source dries up.

“If one source dries up, we have no option but to go to another source. It may cost more, it may consume more resources, but we have to fight that war, and that’s what we emphasised to all the people that we met,” the prime minister told Arab News on Sunday. “We have major US weapons systems in our military, but we’ve also diversified. We have Chinese and European systems. Recently, for the first time we inducted Russian attack helicopters.”

Reiterating his stance on fight against terrorism, Mr Abbasi said the world needed to recognise Pakistan’s efforts. “Any sanctions or restraints […] put on our systems only degrade our efforts to fight terror, and it affect the whole equation in this region,” said a Dawn.com report, quoting from the interview.

Speaking about his unscheduled meetings on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), he said they were held on the request of the US administration and proved to be “very constructive”.

Published in Dawn, October 10th, 2017