Pakistan’s Prime Minister Lashes out at EU Diplomats

Although we are bombarded here in Europe with reports that Russia has been completely isolated on a global scale, for violating the sovereignty of and “invading” another nation, that argument does not sound quite as credible to nations that have been subject to, of witnesses of, repeated such actions by NATO countries, and the United States in particular. Take the case of Pakistan.

At the UN General Assembly on March 2, a motion was introduced denouncing Russia’s special operation in Ukraine. Pakistan refused to endorse it, and abstained from the vote.(China and India, as well as 32 other countries also abstained, cf. above.)

Shortly thereafter, over 20 European Union ambassadors in Islamabad sent a letter to Prime Minister Imran Kahn demanding his government condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In response, he retorted on March 6, while speaking at a political event: “What do you think of us? Are we your slaves … that whatever you say, we will do?” He also asked whether the EU ambassadors had written such a letter to India. In addition to the EU, a U.S. State Department spokesman said the Biden Administration has warned the Pakistani government of the impact that the “unprovoked war against Ukraine could have on regional and global security”.

As Imran Kahn stressed, Pakistan is “friends with Russia, and we are also friends with America; we are friends with China and with Europe; we are not in any camp.” He went on to say that Pakistan would remain “neutral” and collaborate with those working to end the Ukraine conflict.

According to the Business Standard, the Prime Minister also blasted Washington for forcing Pakistan to join western bloc in its war on terror, “which he said resulted in losing at least 80,000 of its citizens, displacement of at least 3.5 million people”, and over $100 billion. And yet, rather than thanking Islamabad for the assistance in Afghanistan, Pakistan had received only condemnation from the EU and the U.S.