The Foreign Office (FO) on Monday confirmed that a member of the five-nation summit BRICS had “blocked Pakistan’s participation” in talks for non-member countries, which were held during the event last week.
BRICS (Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa) brings together the world’s five largest developing countries, representing 41 per cent of the global population, 24 per cent of global GDP and 16 per cent of global trade.
This year, China is hosting the summit in his capacity as the group’s chairman.
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On 24 June, leaders of two dozen non-member countries of the BRICS “High Level Dialogue on Global Development” attended the meeting virtually. However, Pakistan remained absent from the meeting.
Today, in response to media questions on the matter, the FO, without naming the country, said: “Sadly, one member blocked Pakistan’s participation.”
It is believed that the country that blocked Pakistan’s participation was India as the two do not have a pleasant relationship and are embroiled in disputes, most prominently in the area of Kashmir, which have raged on for decades.
However, the FO continued, “we expect the organization’s future involvement to be based on the principles of inclusivity, taking into account the overall interests of the developing world and devoid of narrow geopolitical considerations”.
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Thereafter, Pakistan congratulated China for successfully hosting the BRICS meeting.
“We appreciate China’s role in promoting the interests of developing countries. Along with China, Pakistan has been a strong voice for global peace, shared prosperity and inclusive development. Pakistan is the current chair of the G77+ China and friends is also part of the Group of Global Development Initiative (GDI),” it said.
The FO said that Pakistan and China were forever strategic partners and their “iron brotherhood” was rock solid. “Both countries are fully committed to taking our all-round cooperation to a higher level, both at the bilateral and multilateral levels.”
It further expressed resolve that Pakistan stands ready to stand with all developing countries, including BRICS members, to address the challenges faced by the global community.