Senator Mushahid Hussain tells Beijing Global Forum: 'Nuclear Bombs have no religion, no peace without resolving Kashmir, Palestine & Afghanistan'

Date : November 08, 2013

Beijing/Islamabad (November 8, 2013): Chairman of Senate Defence Committee and Pakistan-China Institute, Senator Mushahid Hussain, addressed the Multilateral Forum on 'Global Trends and China in the Next Decade' urging that key to future stability in Asia lies in resolution of lingering conflicts like Kashmir, Palestine and Korea, in which United Nations mandate still exists as they remain on UN agenda.

Referring to the future, he talked of conflicts amidst uncertainties on whether the US pivot to Asia would mean a reversion to a new Cold War based now on encirclement and containment of what some erroneously call as the 'China threat'. He said riding Asia cannot afford such a destabilising effort from any quarter. He said peace, security and stability are indivisible and until and unless the causes of such instability are tackled, and resolved according to the UN resolutions which remain relevant on Kashmir and Palestine, enduring peace would remain elusive. Senator Mushahid Hussain said after failure of land wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the US had learnt its lesson and that is why Washington did a U-turn by backing off from attacking Syria and started talking to Iran to resolve issues with Tehran.

While chairing the last session of the Multilateral Dialogue, which brought in around 50 top intellectuals, academics, think tank and opinion leaders and policy makers from around the world and China, Chairman Pakistan-China Institute urged the international community to reject double standards on the nuclear issue and treat it without discrimination, adding 'nuclear bombs have no religion'. Pakistan, he added, went nuclear for security, while initiated the nuclear arms race in South Asia for a quest for big power status.

On Afghanistan, he urged the 6 neighbours of Afghanistan to play a proactive role plus there would be eventual need of a UN Peacekeeping Force backed by the OIC as well, with genuine national reconciliation involving all factions.

Responding to a question regarding rise of extremism and terrorism, he said that it was a result of 'collective responsibility of both the West and Muslim countries including Pakistan who waged a joint Jehad in Afghanistan', with money that poured in to train the Afghan Mujahideen and Arabs fighting the Soviet Red Army. Similarly, in the Gulf, Iraqi dictator Saddam was egged on by the West to attack Iran, and both these 'adventures have proved to be costly for the region'.

Finally, Senator Mushahid Hussain foresaw future conflicts driven by high technology, and this would include Cyber Wars, intrusive spying by satellite, covert operations and attacks by drones, rather than big land wars, as a declining West could no longer afford to send troops to distant lands, having wasted over $ 3 trillion already in the post-9/11 so-called 'war on terror'.