PM Imran urges Asian pacific nations to settle disputes for peace.

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that the countries of Asia Pacific should settle their disputes for peace, security and economic prosperity in the region.

He was virtually speaking at the Conference on Future of Asia under the theme Shaping the Post-Covid Era: Asia's Role in the Global Recovery on Friday. Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday said for Asia to gain recovery from post-pandemic health and economic crises, a collective action of countries was necessary including expanding vaccine's supply and keep economies open.

"To ensure rapid recovery, we in Asia, and elsewhere, must keep economies open, revive disrupted supply chains, and resist protectionist temptations," the prime minister said in his virtual address at Nikkei's 26th Conference on 'Future of Asia - Shaping the Post-Covid Era: Asia's Role in Global Recovery'.

The prime minister said unless fully contained, the pandemic could create social chaos and threaten peace and security in Asia and elsewhere in the world. "No one will be safe unfortunately until everyone is safe...The vaccine's supply and distribution must be immediately expanded, patent rights waived, production ramped up, including in the developing world and the COVAX facility fully extended and funded," he said. Imran Khan mentioned that coronavirus had created the worst global health, economic and social crisis in the past 100 years and said it was essential to provide low-income countries a fiscal space and liquidity to respond to the impact of the pandemic, revive economic growth and preserve social stability. He recalled his earlier proposal of a five-point agenda for debt relief, SDR creation and re-allocation, larger concessional finance, fulfillment of climate finance commitments, and an end to illicit financial flows from developing countries. He welcomed the extension of the G-20's debt suspension initiative, the agreement to create $650 billion in new SDRs, expand IDA funding and also expand the emergency support programmes for the Multilateral Development Banks. The recommendations of the FACTI Panel on illicit financial flows must also be implemented, he added. The prime minister said if Asian and other countries were to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 and net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, they needed to invest massively in new and sustainable infrastructure - energy, transportation, housing, agriculture and industry. He stressed that less-developed countries must be...