Ghani Jafar

　　The topic of the Forum encapsulates the most pertinent opportunities as also challenges that the Asia-Pacific region faces today. Both these dimensions have a particular bearing on this region because of its largely underdeveloped state and dangers to peace and security that it faces.

　　Pakistan enjoys a unique geostrategic position on the global map. The world has progressively come to acknowledge the inescapable relevance of the country to regions which include Africa, the Gulf, West Asia and Central Asia on the one hand, and South Asia, Southeast Asia and Asia-Pacific, on the other.

　　It would be unrealistic to underrate the long unresolved issue of Jammu and Kashmir between Pakistan and India in terms of prospects of peaceful development and security in the Asia-Pacific region. Apart from its regional security dimension, the heavy financial burden in military terms placed on Pakistan's resources on this count continues to retard the pace of the country's overall socio-economic development.

　　It was against such a backdrop that an exciting new avenue for laying the foundations of durable peace and stability presented itself through the prospect of the construction of a natural gas pipeline from Iran to India across Pakistan. State-interdependence for procurement of such an essential commodity as energy is the highest stake the respective sides can develop in mutual stability.

　　Unfortunately, the project appears at the moment to have been bogged down - not at the Pakistani end - by certain extra-regional powers' playing global geostrategic games. Even so, Pakistan is still determined to see the pipeline through to its own territory even if India opts out of the project.

　　At the same time, Pakistan is fast developing its infrastructure to become a major energy corridor as between the oil-deficient China and possibly also Japan on the one hand; and the oil-rich Central Asia, the Gulf region and Africa, on the other. With the commissioning of the deep-sea port at Gwadar by the yearend, the country would come to have the wherewithal for the purpose.

　　A vast network of highways and railways is also fast being constructed to link up the port with all the neighbouring countries to facilitate not just the passage of energy resources but also international trade. Pakistan and China already have a tremendous advantage in this regard in the form of the Karakoram Highway.

　　The peace dividends of such a course to regional development are only too obvious. In sharp contrast to the policies pursued earlier by some other global powers, China must be complimented for taking up the pioneering role of advancing regional development in Asia-Pacific that alone can guarantee sustainable peace and security.