The deadly floods in Pakistan left one-third of the country underwater, serving as a wake-up call on the issue of climate change across the globe. As Pakistan recovers from the disaster, the country’s Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto urged neighbouring country India to “work together.”
With the country reeling from the floods, Pakistan Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said that it is time for India and Pakistan to work together on climate change. He further highlighted the impact of global warming that has caused unprecedented floods in his country.
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Bilawal, who is in Washington DC for a series of bilateral meetings, told a group of Pakistani media on Friday that given the situation his country is in due to the devastating floods, "it's time that both India and Pakistan work together on the issue of climate change".
“One-third of our country is underwater. One in seven people (is impacted by floods). If we are saying that to fight climate change, the US and China should work together. (We) should think about India and Pakistan working together on the issue of climate change,” Bhutto further said.
Scientists and experts attribute this disastrous situation in Pakistan to the melting glaciers because of climate change. The United States has announced a massive USD 66 million humanitarian aid to the people of Pakistan.
This call for action from Pakistan’s side when the relations between the country and India remain strained, most notably over the Kashmir conflict and India’s call to scrap Article 370 of the Constitution, revoking the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcating the State into two Union Territories on August 5, 2019.
Following India's decision, Pakistan downgraded diplomatic ties with New Delhi and expelled the Indian envoy. Trade ties between Pakistan and India have largely been frozen since then.
However, Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif has multiple times urged Indian counterpart Narendra Modi to resolve the Kashmir conflict and called for peaceful dialogue between the two countries.
(With PTI inputs)
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