Pakistani PM outlines foreign policy

The newly elected Prime Minister of Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif, has outlined the priorities of his government's foreign policy on Thursday. The PM addressed a message for all Heads of Pakistan Missions abroad saying that the government will be guided by the wisdom of the people, the vision of the nation's founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah and the desire to see Pakistan acquire its rightful place in the comity of nations. On the issue of Afghanistan, Nawaz said, "Unless the region is peaceful, our efforts for growth and development will not meet with success. I stress on the importance of developing regional consensus on supporting a stable government and peace in Afghanistan." Nawaz noted that Pakistan has many areas of common interests with US saying, "We will build on convergence and wherever there is divergence, we will work to try to minimize and remove such divergence." "With China, which has always been a great friend and a significant economic partner, Pakistan will strengthen this valuable and much appreciated strategic relationship", said Nawaz. The Prime Minister expressed the desire to deepen relations with the Middle East, East Asia and elsewhere. "Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Iran are friendly countries with which we shall continue to pursue close cooperative relations," said Nawaz. With India, the Prime Minister stressed the need to progressively pursue normalcy in bilateral relations, while actively seeking solutions for all outstanding issues, including Jammu and Kashmir. Expressing a need of strategy development regarding terrorism, the PM said, the government will develop a comprehensive strategy and a national consensus in consultation will all political parties, security forces, media and the civil society in dealing with this phenomenon. The message said, "Heads of missions and embassies, that are our first line of defence and our primary interface with the outside world, have important roles to play to achieve this objective". The prime minister also provided an outline of priorities of the government on foreign policy to serve as basic guidelines for the embassies and missions abroad, the official statement further added.