Imran Khan supporters reach public square near Pakistan parliament for ‘do or die’ sit-in

KARACHI: Pakistan’s AMAN-25 multinational naval exercise kicked off on Friday with a flag-hoisting ceremony in Karachi, where the Pakistan Navy’s fleet commander lauded the participation of 60 nations as a testament to the world community’s desire for peace.
The Pakistan Navy has conducted the AMAN maritime exercise every two years since 2007 under the theme “Together For Peace,” involving ships, aircraft and special operations forces.
This year’s special feature is the inaugural AMAN Dialogue, themed “Secure Seas, Prosperous Future,” with a focus on security challenges in the Indian Ocean. These include strategic competition, piracy, narco-trafficking, non-state actors, resource exploitation, climate change, emerging technologies such as AI and unmanned systems, the blue economy and the need for global collaboration to ensure stability and prosperity.
“Today, we stand at a record, which is 60 countries participating in the exercise,” Rear Admiral Abdul Munib told Arab News after the inauguration. “That itself speaks to how the world community actually wants to get together for peace.”

He added that since 2007, when the multinational exercise was launched for the first time, strategic leadership was not involved in AMAN, a gap that led Pakistan’s naval chief to propose the idea of a dialogue.
“This was his vision whereby he perceived the idea of the AMAN Dialogue, whereby we invited like-minded nations, and you would see that many countries are being represented by their heads of navies, coast guards, and defense services,” he added.

Earlier, he told a ceremony attended by naval officials from other countries that the dialogue aimed to promote a shared understanding of maritime security challenges and their linkage with the blue economy.
In a video message released by the Pakistan Navy, a Saudi official said that the Royal Saudi Navy was proud to participate in the exercises.
“The Royal Saudi Navy is proud to participate, reflecting our commitment to maritime security,” said Brig. (Staff) Bander Hamad S. Al-Hokubani, the Saudi military attaché in Islamabad. “We look forward to achieving its goals and strengthening ties with all participants.”

The Saudi official added that the exercise was a key multinational effort to enhance maritime cooperation and address shared challenges.
According to the Pakistan Navy, the exercise will be conducted in two phases: a harbor phase from Feb. 7-9 and a sea phase, running from Feb. 10-11, which will include search-and-rescue operations, live weapon firings and an international fleet review.

Main activities during the exercise will include a maritime counterterrorism demonstration by the Special Service Group (SSG) and Pak Marines, tabletop discussions on professional topics, and ship visits.
“An International Fleet Review is scheduled for February 11, 2025, alongside sea exercises to address collaborative security threats, with special operations forces, explosive ordnance disposal teams and marine units participating in developing tactics, techniques and procedures for multinational responses to asymmetric threats,” the Pakistan Navy’s press statement added.

ISLAMABAD: Aban Marker Kabraji, an adviser for the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), said on Friday climate change was a “national security issue” for Pakistan, urging the nation’s all-powerful military to consider it “one of the most important issues” it needed to address. 

Armies are huge energy users and have a significant contribution on climate change as military activities, including aircraft operations, naval vessels, and land vehicle usage, burn large amounts of fossil fuels, leading to substantial greenhouse gas emissions. Large-scale training exercises also often involve heavy vehicle usage, contributing to emissions. 

Global experts have for years called for military emission reduction targets to be included in national climate strategies. According to a University of Birmingham study in 2021, it has been estimated that 20 percent of all environmental degradation globally is due to military-related activities. 

The Global Climate Risk Index says Pakistan is among the countries most at risk from climate change. Extreme weather events like floods, droughts, cyclones, torrential rainstorms and heatwaves have been occurring more frequently and with greater intensity across Pakistan in recent years. 

“I think it [climate change] has turned into one [national security issue],” Kabraji told Arab News on the sidelines of the Breathe Pakistan Climate Conference in Islamabad when asked about the role of the Pakistan army in mitigating climate change effects.

“Specifically, just to look at it from the military perspective, from a security point of view, it [climate change] is one of the greatest threats to Pakistan’s existence. Because from climate impact comes social disruption, migration, environmental climate refugees, which basically undermines the stability of a country. So it becomes a very high security concern for anybody who is interested and committed to the long term stability of the state … for anybody in charge of ensuring the security of Pakistan, climate is one of the most important issues to look at.”

Experts say climate change can directly affect military infrastructure such as coastal bases threatened by rising sea levels or training grounds impacted by extreme weather events. Climate change can also create new security challenges in regions affected by extreme weather events like rising sea levels, floods and droughts.

For all these reasons and more, climate change had the potential to “destabilize the state,” Kabraji added, thus making it a “national security issue.”

“Whether it is spoken about in those terms [of national security] as explicitly as you say, perhaps not, but I think it is recognized increasingly [by the military],” she said. 

GLOBAL CLIMATE PLEDGES

International donors in January 2023 committed over $9 billion to help Pakistan recover from ruinous floods a year earlier, exceeding its external financing goals. Officials from some 40 countries as well as private donors and international financial institutions gathered at a meeting in Geneva as Islamabad sought funds to cover around half of a recovery bill amounting to $16.3 billion.

Among the donors were the Islamic Development Bank ($4.2 bln), the World Bank ($2 bln), Saudi Arabia ($1 bln), as well as the European Union and China. France and the United States also made contributions.

Commenting on the pledges, Kabraji said the “promised amounts” had not reached the country.

“The intent might have been there and at that time they may have had the budget, but circumstances change,” she said, adding that the Ukraine or Gaza wars and the US election could alter the dynamics entirely and urging Pakistan to set up local agencies to secure financial support to combat climate change.

CLIMATE FOOTPRINT OF CHINESE INVESTMENTS

The UN adviser also commented on the carbon footprint and climate change impacts of China’s massive infrastructure, energy and other investment projects in Pakistan, saying no study had as yet been carried out in this regard. 

“It certainly is something the government needs to look at from the point of view of the old ways of doing infrastructure and the new ways that would need to be adapted to what climate impact is all about,” Kabraji said.

But China opened up opportunities for Pakistan as a world leader in energy efficiency technology, particularly in the realm of renewable energy like solar panels and electric vehicles, being the globe’s largest producer and exporter in these sectors.

“Rather than looking at the impact, just look at what the opportunities are because China can bring in the best technologies [to Pakistan] in terms of infrastructure investment and adaptation to climate change,” Kabraji said.