ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Office has said the world is increasingly becoming supportive of Pakistan’s position on the Kashmir dispute with India.

“There is receptivity and increasing understanding in the international community (about Pakistan’s stance on the Kashmir issue),” FO spokesman Asim Iftikhar said on Friday at the weekly media briefing while referring to the statements by various international leaders; debates in various parliaments regarding the human rights situation in occupied Kashmir; and special reports by rights organisations like Amnesty and Human Rights Watch.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock had last Friday said her country supports UN role in resolving the Kashmir dispute. US ambassador to Pakistan Donald Blome earlier visited Azad Jammu and Kashmir for what the US embassy in Islamabad described as “promoting the US-Pakistan partnership”. It is rare for an American envoy to visit AJK and meet officials there due to Indian reservations.

“So there is certainly attention and pressure. We will continue to forcefully raise the matter at all fora,” the spokesman said.

He dismissed an observation that the international community was slow to respond to appeals for relief assistance for flood victims. “The response from the international community has been very forthcoming. So far, pledges of over $205 million have been made, of which $90m has been committed or actualised. Let me note again that this is the flash appeal we are talking about, and it relates to the urgent humanitarian needs,” he said.

UN had upscaled its flash appeal to $816 million last week, but only $89.8m had been committed so far.

“The response from the international community, in terms of bilateral and multilateral assistance, is much beyond the figure of $90m. There is additional assistance that does not come under the flash appeal. So if you look at the total financial assistance that has been pledged, it is more than $425m now and it includes assistance offered at bilateral level from a large number of countries and others. Countries are also providing substantial in-kind assistance. Again this does not include the repurposed funds of around $290m by the World Bank, and assistance pledged or offered by other financial institutions. Sum total of all pledges exceeds $1.1 billion,” he said.

About the new US National Security Strategy document, he said Pakistan supports cooperation rather than confrontation. “We have also said many times that we do not want to be part of any bloc politics,” he said.

Published in Dawn, October 15th, 2022