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COAS Gen Bajwa intends to cut army strength of 5,38,000 substantially over next 5 years

Good move if true. Army needs to downsize substantially to manage its funds and equipment better. A smaller, better trained, better armed force is much more useful in today’s conflict scenarios where an all out war is much less likely than a smaller, contained conflict in a selected area. We don’t need the forces to be as big anymore as we need them to be technologically and tactically prepared.
 
If true, then the reason may be (?) :


Bajwa said [he probably had a little slip of tongue in one sentence, but you'll get the point]:


"finally one quick and important lesson, as a military man, that emerges from Russia-Ukraine conflict which must be highlighted over here and that is that it is the preeminence or dominance of fire power over mobility [I think he wanted to say mobility over fire power ? ] as was the case during first war this has given a heart to smaller country that they can still defend their territory with smaller but agile forces against an aggression by a bigger country by carrying out selective modernization in equipment and adopting novel ideas and this is the course we intend following for our future developmental studies"



i.e. Redirect some spending on quality from quantity (?)



Full txt of his speech here:
What did he say that is contrary to IK's position regarding meddling of foreign hand in Pak politics, or contrary to position of Pakistan in UN vote on Rusi invasion prior to this address? . . . Nothing!

What's all that hue and cry on this thread for?

Army chief in this address did NOT condemn Rus, that's what the UN vote was for to "deplore" Rus & ask Rus to give up on Donbas. He just refused to condone & he said that Rusi concerns were legitimate but the invasion was unfortunate & should have been resolved by diplomacy/dialogue. He encouraged ceasefire and dialogue, as he did for Kashmir, Indo-China disputes, so that the region will not be on fire.


Had Pakistan voted "against" in UN vote to "deplore" Rus, then this speech would be backtracking from Pak's earlier position; from "against" -to- "neutral".
But Pak "abstained" which was like saying, "Neither do we condemn, nor we condone". That's exactly what Army Chief reiterated in this speech.


UN vote also demanded that Rus give up on Donbas. So that was a tricky one for Pakistan to vote in favour of. Because that has similarities to Kashmir issue. Had Pak voted in favour of Rus giving up on Donbass, implicitly Pak would be saying that Pak should give up on Kashmir. Both Pak & Rus want to give right to the people of Kashmir/Donbass to decide their fate, but Army Chief said it should be achieved by diplomacy/dialogue.


To me it seems like between the lines Army Chief called out Murika & lackeys for being a warmonger & pro-division & looking for dominance . . . by saying that there r clearly 2 camps
Those who do warmongering & contestation . . . and those who advocate cooperation. I think Lines in purple are directed towards Murika & cronies seeking to create divides.




Transcript is from captioning, so has typos & no periods:


Doctor Moeed youssef esteem palace speakers international guests ladies and gentlemen assalamu alaikum and good morning it's my profound pleasure to speak to you once again at islamabad security dialogue i'm extremely pleased to know that this forum organized by a national security division for the first time in 2021 has already made its mark as one of the region's prominent security dialogue and i would like to complement dr mohit and his team for this achievement i believe today more than ever we need to inculcate and promote such spaces for intellectual debate and discourse where people from around the world come together to share ideas about the future of their countries and the world at large where some of the brightest minds can identify means of global cooperation rather than confrontation ladies and gentlemen i speak to you today as the world is witnessing an unprecedented return to global power contrastion the resurgence of interstate conflict amid shared global challenges of poverty climate change terrorism cyber intrusion and scarcity of resources poses profound questions for international system the international community's collective security rest in our ability to integrate our shared goals of global prosperity through an equitable international system resisting the pressures of great power contestation pakistan as a country located at the crossroads of economic and strategic conference is navigating these shared challenges in our immediate region and through our partnership in the international community ladies and gentlemen pakistan's first ever national security policy places the safety security dignity and prosperity of its citizens at the heart of our security policy it recognizes the symbiotic relationship between economic human traditional security placing economic security at the core with the ultimate aim of achieving prosperity for our citizen with focus on ensuring domestic economic stability and growth augmented through development partnership with international community under our geo-economic strategy achieving this requires feet at peace at home and abroad internally partial law enforcing agencies and the military have given innumerable sacrifices to defeat the manners of terrorism since 2001 pakistan has suffered over 90 000 communities and more than 150 billion in economic losses our commitment to defeating terrorism remains unwavering through the selfless dedication and sacrifices of our armed forces civil law enforcing agencies and support of our nation we have made remarkable gains against terrorism this has resulted in a marked improvement in the internal security situation of pakistan however the threat of terrorism and violent extremism remains and the struggle continues till we eliminate the last terrorist and cause of terrorism from our region we are committed to preserving our gains against terrorism and we are working with the interim government and other neighbors to ensure that terrorist organizations are no longer allowed to use territory of one country against another one a peaceful and prosperous west and south asia is our goal pakistan national security policy places a premium on promoting national cohesion and harmony through the precepts of unity in diversity our focus remains on eliminating intolerance and extremism by celebrating the diversity of our country and ensuring the rate of state to preserve the fundamental rights guaranteed under the constitution irrespective of cross creed or belief i fully realize that it is a huge challenge but we are committed and we will not relent till we make pakistan a moderate and forward-looking country as envisioned by our founding father muhammad ali pakistan also recognizes that it is the regions not the countries that grow that is why we believe that peace and stability in our wider regions are prerequisites for achieving shared regional prosperity and development in this regard our doors are open for all our neighbors ladies and gentlemen for decades conflict in our immediate west has created negative externalities and spillover effects that have adversely impacted our economy society and security this is why pakistan continues to work closely with international community to pursue peace and stability in afghanistan unfortunately lack of financial flows and continued sanctions are creating a humanitarian crisis in afghanistan pakistan has worked tirelessly to provide humanitarian aid to the people of afghanistan in collaboration with international community but much more is needed it is our collective responsibility towards the people afghanistan to ensure that timely and adequate humanitarian aid flows into the country while the world especially the west are preoccupied by the humanitarian crisis unfolding in ukraine we must ensure that 40 million of ones who face terrible conditions are not forgotten the consequences of our inability to address the humanitarian crisis afghanistan will not only lead to refugee crisis but will again make afghanistan an epicenter of terrorism where dice with its global agenda flourishes which may which may result in more than one 9 11. therefore good or bad it is important for the international community to keep aquan government's nose above the water the performance of president government is not satisfactory to say the least but we have to be patient and accommodative instead of imposing sanctions which have never worked we must incentivize for their positive behavioral change while pakistan shares some of the concerns of the international community we believe that disengagement with afghanistan is not an option we urge the international community to share their concern directly with the interim government and continue their agenda to ensure uninterrupted flow of humanitarian assistance to the people afghanistan pakistan already hosts nearly four million registered and unregistered asmar refugees we continue to host our brothers and sisters but would like to work with international community to create stable environment necessary for their time-bound and dignified return to afghanistan ladies and gentlemen towards the east situation along the line of control is satisfactory and very peaceful mercifully we have not seen any major incident along the line of control since last one year which has brought great leave to the people living along both sides of the line of control however the recent incident involving indian launching a supersonic pakistan on 9th march 2022 is a serious concern unlike other incident involving strategic weapons system this is the first time in history that a supersonic cruise missile from one nuclear armed nation has landed another this was a serious concern about india's ability to manage and operate high-end weapons systems and equally concern against india's indefinite indefinite in not informing pakistan immediately about an in a different launch of the missile we hope the international community will realize that this incident could have resulted in loss of life in pakistan or an accidental shooting down of a passenger planes that were flying along the path of the cruise missile pakistan has called for a thorough probe into the incident and we expect india to provide evidence to ensure pakistan and the world their weap that their weapons are safe and secure on our part like early 2019 when pakistan demonstrated its role as a responsible member of international community by returning the captured pilot of an including indian fighter aircraft we have once again demonstrated maturity and responsibility in our response ladies and gentlemen pakistan continues to believe in using dialogue and diplomacy to resolve all outstanding issues including the kashmir dispute and is ready to move forward on this front if india also agrees to do so with one third of the world engulfed in some sort of a conflict or war it is important that we keep the flames of fire away from our region in this regard beside Kashmir dispute the indo-china border dispute is also a matter of great concern for us and we want it to be settled quickly through dialogue and diplomacy i believe it is time for political leadership of the region to rise above their emotional and perceptual biases and break the shackles of history to bring peace and prosperity to almost 3 billion people of the region and gentlemen with growing concern about major park and station pakistan is positioning itself as a melting pot for a positive global economic interest through our focus on connectivity and development friendship pakistan does not believe in camp politics and our bilateral relationship with our partners are not at the expense of our relationship with other countries. Pakistan enjoys a close strategic relationship with china demonstrated by our commitment towards pakistan china economic corridor or cpec equally we share a long history of excellent and strategic relationship with united states which remains our largest export market we seek to broaden expand our ties with both countries without impacting our relations with the other similarly european union united kingdom gulf south east asia and japan are also vital for our national development and progress ladies and gentlemen pakistan is deeply concerned about the conflict in ukraine with ukraine we enjoy excellent defense and economic relationships since its independence with russia we had cold relation for a long time due to numerous reasons however recently there had been some positive development in this regard sadly the russian invasion against ukraine is very unfortunate as thousands of people have been killed millions made refugees and half of ukraine destroyed this is a huge tragedy which must be stopped immediately furthermore despite legitimate security concerns of russia its aggression against a smaller country cannot be condoned pakistan has consistently called for an immediate ceasefire and cessation of facilities we support immediate dialogue between all sides to find a lasting solution to the conflict. pakistan has also dispatched humanitarian assistance to ukraine through special flights of pakistan our pakistan air force and will continue to do so the continuation or expansion of conflict in ukraine will not serve the interest of any side least of all the developing countries which will continue to face social economic costs of the conflict a conflict which can easily get out of hand ladies and gentlemen clearly there are visible camps at the time among global quality those which educate contrastation and those advocate cooperation the future vision of global security will ultimately be shaped and decided by the fact that which camp prevails i believe the world today at this civilizational and scientific pinnacle is built by those who visualized and believed in cooperation respect and equality instead of divisions war mongering and dominance. pakistan today has a unique position where it has very caudal historic relation with both the camps our interests are best served only if cooperation between various power center is promoted instead of contestation and so is the case with other developing country developing countries i beg your pardon is therefore necessary for the world leadership to support the island of corporations such as pakistan instead of promoting those who wish to gain from this contest finally one quick and important lesson as a military man, that emerges from russian uh russia ukraine conflict which must be highlighted over here and that is that it is the preeminence or dominance of fire power over mobility as was the case during first war this has given a hard to smaller country that they can still defend their territory with smaller but agile forces against an aggression by a bigger country by carrying out selective modernization in equipment and adopting novel ideas and this is the course we intend following for our future developmental studies i thank you ladies and gentlemen we'll now be having a question answer session with some housekeeping rules control room can you please islamabad security dialogue
 
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