The Washington Post’s ‘Discord Leaks’ story on compromised documents on crucial matters included a leaked recording of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and State Minister for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar discussing Pakistan’s relations with the US.
The two dignitaries and an aide discussed the country’s diplomatic relations with the Joe Biden-led administration amid the Ukraine-Russia crisis in the leaked chat.
The premier also discussed the UN’s voting on the conflict between the two nations, which has been going on since February 2022, in the critical foreign policy meeting, according to the US daily.
Also, an aide warned the prime minister that backing the resolution could jeopardize Pakistan’s commercial and energy relations with Russia and appear to change Pakistan’s position.
According to leaked documents, Khar advised Pakistan to avoid appeasing the West and warned that maintaining a strategic engagement with the US would compromise its original strategic cooperation with longtime ally China.
“According to one of the leaked documents, Hina Rabbani Khar, Pakistan’s minister of state for foreign affairs, argued in March that her country can ‘no longer try to maintain a middle ground between China and the United States’,” the Washington Post said.
Moreover, the US news site reported that Pakistani officials declined to comment. Also, the leaked Washington Post report focused on US backing for the Russia-Ukraine war dwindling.
“When the UN General Assembly voted Feb. 23, Pakistan was among 32 countries that abstained,” the media site reported.
The American publication’s story comes after the US said it doesn’t mind Pakistan importing Russian oil. In March, Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping for two days of highly observed negotiations.