Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi will conduct a three-day official visit to the United Kingdom beginning from September 26, 2021, during which he is expected to persuade top British officials not to postpone the scheduled tour of the British cricket team to Pakistan.
Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, who is in New York for the UN General Assembly session, will arrive in London on September 26. He will meet with his British counterpart Liz Truss, who replaced Dominican Raab in a significant cabinet reshuffle on September 15.
The top agenda of the Foreign Minister is to look out for are:
- Bilateral relations.
- Regional situation.
- Afghanistan.
- Planned visit by British cricket to Pakistan next month.
Shah Mehmood Qureshi will also address the think tank and hold talks with British-Pakistani community leaders. He will also address the Pakistani media before his departure on 28th September.
The cancellation of the New Zealand cricket team’s visit to Pakistan would also be discussed in the talks between two foreign ministers, as an alliance of five eyes (an intelligence alliance of the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand) that issued a security alert to NZ for a possible terrorist attack on the NZ team.
The Foreign Minister Shah will also personally thank the British Foreign Secretary for removing Pakistan from the red list. According to the official sources, “Bilateral trade and economic ties, cooperation in the field of education, health, defense, security, science, and technology would also be discussed during official talks.”
Afghanistan
In a recent interview, the foreign minister stated that the UK should “face the new reality” in Afghanistan and provide prompt aid to the Taliban-run country, warning that isolating the Taliban authorities would result in economic collapse, “anarchy,” and “chaos.”
Qureshi said “My message [to the UK] is that there is a new reality in Afghanistan. Accept the new reality and let us work to achieve our objectives.”
He said that the United Kingdom and its Western partners were not doing enough to engage with the Taliban administration or to avert a looming humanitarian crisis, and he urged the West to supply supplies with no political strings attached.
The foreign minister warned that Pakistan would not accept any more Afghan refugees because it already hosting several million from previous conflicts.
