Foreign policy is all about interest and engagements: IR experts.

Islamabad -- Pakistan has close relations with the Middle East states and these relations are important for religious, strategic, political, and economic reasons, said Director General Pakistan House Muhammad Athar Javed while addressing a webniar in Islamabad on Friday.

Pakistan's foreign policy fostered stronger ties with the Middle East through expanded trade. In addition, Pakistani workers employed in the Persian Gulf states, Libya, and Iran provided remittances to Pakistan that was a major source of foreign-exchange earnings, the DG said.

Foreign policy is all about interest and engagements, panel will elaborate further.

The webniar was Pakistan House an independent think tank hosted an International Webinar on Pakistan's Middle East Policy: Bilateralism Vs National Interest today that was attended by experts and professionals from different walks of life to share their views on the subject.

General Phil Jones (retd.), former Chief of Staff NATO (UK), Chairman Army Benevolent Fund, UK- International Security Advisor shared that Middle East has its own interests and perspectives.

Pakistan has three potential areas to increase engament with Middle East i.e. Fiscal, Regional military relations and finding Security solutions. Military to military engagement is easier than political to diplomatic engagements.

Syed Muhammad Ali, Director Centre for Aerospace and Security Studies (CASS) said that Pakistan has trained and groomed many diplomates from 41 states and there has been a regular participation from brotherly countries.

In terms of security, it has to be seen in detailed and different context. Besides China, Turkey has been greatly supporting Pakistan and Pakistan's national security. Pakistan expects other Arab states to be friendly and critical as well.

Dr. Zafar Nawaz Jaspal, Professor School of Politics and International Relations at Quaid-e- Azam University, Islamabad was of the view that there are three major groups to keep in mind when considering strong bilateralism in the Middle East: GCC, Turkish group and lastly Iran.

If focusing on pursuing the national interest Pakistan needs to establish good relations with all of these three groups.

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