ISLAMABAD, NOV 16 /DNA/ – Charles Delogne, Ambassador of Belgium in Pakistan called on Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar today.

They took stock of bilateral relations while stressing the need for further enhancing trade and investment ties. Important regional and global matters were also discussed. DNA

DNA

ISLAMABAD: Palestine has condemned terrorist attack on Pakistani police officials and expressed sympathies with the families of the victims.

In a statement Ambassador of Palestine to Pakistan Ahmed Rabei said ‘We strongly condemn terror in all kind and manifestations and firmly stand with brotherly people of Pakistan. We are deep grieved over the martyrdom of six police officials.

The ambassador wished that May Allah Almighty rest the departed souls in peace and grant courage to the bereaved families to bear this loss.

BALI, NOV 15: Russia faced mounting diplomatic pressure Tuesday to end its war in Ukraine, as G20 allies and critics alike rued the painful global impact of nearly nine months of conflict.

A draft communique obtained showed the world’s 20 leading economies coming together to condemn the war’s effects, but still divided on apportioning blame.

The summit has shown that even Russia’s allies have limited patience with a conflict that has inflated food and energy prices worldwide and raised the spectre of nuclear war.

Risking diplomatic isolation, Russia was forced to agree that the “war in Ukraine” — which Moscow refuses to call a war — has “adversely impacted the global economy”.

It also agreed that “the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons” is “inadmissible”, after months of President Vladimir Putin making such threats.

The embattled Russian leader has skipped the summit, staying at home to reckon with a string of embarrassing battlefield defeats and a grinding campaign that threatens the future of his regime.

Rubbing salt in Russia’s wounds, Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky — fresh from a visit to liberated Kherson — delivered an impassioned video appeal to G20 leaders.

Zelensky told leaders from China’s Xi Jinping to America’s Joe Biden that they could “save thousands of lives” by pressing for a Russian withdrawal.

“I am convinced now is the time when the Russian destructive war must and can be stopped,” he said, sporting his now-trademark army-green T-shirt.

Putin’s delegate, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, whose summit preparation was disrupted by two hospital health checks for an undiagnosed ailment, remained in the room throughout Zelensky’s address, diplomatic sources said.

His most notable diplomatic victory was an acknowledgement in the communique that while “most members” of the G20 condemned Putin’s invasion, “there were other views and different assessments”.

Leaders must now sign off on the final text before the summit ends on Wednesday.

“All problems are with the Ukrainian side, which is categorically refusing negotiations and putting forward conditions that are obviously unrealistic,” Lavrov told reporters.

The foreign minister had a dinner with leaders before departing on Tuesday.

‘IMMENSE’ SUFFERING

The United States and its allies used the summit to broaden the coalition against Russia’s invasion and scotch Moscow’s claims of a war of East versus West.

Many “see Russia’s war in Ukraine as the root source of immense economic and humanitarian suffering in the world”, said a senior U.S. official.

Russia’s G20 allies China, India and South Africa refrain from publicly criticising Putin’s war, and the draft joint statement is replete with diplomatic fudges and linguistic gymnastics.

But it gives a growing sense of the worldwide impact of the war.

“The war is affecting everyone,” said Argentine Foreign Minister Santiago Cafiero.

“In the northern hemisphere the merchants of death broker lethal arms sales, but in the southern hemisphere food is costly or scarce — what kills are not bullets or missiles, but poverty and hunger.”

There was also a hint at growing Chinese unease with Russia’s prosecution of the war when presidents Xi and Biden met late Monday.

“It’s clear that the Russians are very isolated,” said one Western official. “I think some countries engaged with Russia but… I did not see any gestures of great solidarity.”

GRAIN CORRIDOR

A deal expiring Saturday that allows Ukraine to export grain through the Black Sea is a focus of summit conversations, with leaders expected to urge its “full, timely and continued implementation”.

Ukraine is one of the world’s top grain producers, and the Russian invasion blocked 20 million tonnes of grain in its ports before the United Nations and Türkiye brokered the deal in July.

The summit build-up focused heavily on Xi, who is making only his second overseas trip since the pandemic began and has stolen the spotlight as leaders line up to speak with him.

Xi and Biden cooled Cold War rhetoric during three hours of talks on Monday, taking some of the heat out of their simmering rivalry.

“The world expects that China and the United States will properly handle the relationship,” Xi told Biden.

Former U.S. diplomat Danny Russel described the meeting as broadly positive.

“We should beware of prematurely declaring the strategic rivalry over. However, we saw a deliberate effort to stabilise a dangerously overheated relationship.”

Karachi, NOV 15 /DNA/ – Future warfare would see Artificial Intelligence as the third revolution in warfare being utilized with minimal adverse impact. This augments the implications of AI on national security, military tactics, and defence strategies as almost 70-75% of global defence leaders believe that AI will be very or extremely important to organizational strategies and in bearing outcomes.

This was highlighted during the first day of a seminar titled ‘Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Defence Market; A Paradigm Shift in Military Strategy and National Security’, which was organized at Expo Centre, Karachi, on November 15, 2022, as part of IDEAS 2022 in joint-collaboration of Institute of Policy Studies (IPS), Islamabad, and Defence Export Promotion Organization (DEPO).

The seminar, which was moderated by Prof. Dr. Syed Irfan Hyder, vice chancellor, Ziauddin University, was graced as Chief Guest by Lt Gen (Retd) Humayun Aziz, HI (M), secretary, Ministry of Defence Production, and addressed by Major General Muhammad Arif Malik, HI (M), DG DEPO, Lars G. A. Hilse, a German scholar and global thought leader in the field of digital strategy and cyber security, Dr. Sigit Jarot, CEO Cloudtech and Head of Infrastructure, MASTEL, Indonesia, Dr. Yasar Ayaz, CPD/Chairman, National Center of Artificial Intelligence (NCAI), and Dr. Jawwad Shamsi, dean, FAST NUCES Faculty of Computer.

The event was attended by various foreign dignitaries, high-rank government officials, ministries, academics, think tanks, representatives from public and private industries, and law experts.

With Artificial Intelligence having different dimensions of application, Lt Gen (Retd) Humayun Aziz termed it as an aspirational goal, a game changer, and a transformative national security technology that is opening up several prospects of military success as well as threats to defense and security. Hence, demanding a holistic approach to better cater to prospects and curtail emerging menaces.

He stated that three major areas of national security which would see a significant impact from the increasing developments in AI are military superiority, information superiority, and economic superiority through data, data-driven technologies, machine learning technology, network technologies, and cyber defense technology, etc.

Regarding the future dynamics of the international security environment and strategic shifts in defense, he noted that these are dependent on AI and AI-driven applications, which have now become key pillars of states. However, these developments would not curtail the significance and reliance on conventional capabilities in mitigating and combating threats.

He further maintained that the transformation of warfare through AI, along with biotech, strategic weaponry, and computers, would increase armed forces’ readiness and bring a paradigm shift in modern warfare and the security apparatus of states.
Highlighting the globalization of weapon systems and advancements in AI, Maj Gen Arif emphasized that new technologies have ushered increased opportunities, demands, and investments in the development of AI-integrated systems in the defense and security domain.

He advocated for building awareness for the use of AI and AI research in the fields of intelligence collection and analysis, logistics, robotics, cyber missions, information operations, C2, and autonomous weaponry for better incorporation of AI into real-world military operations globally.

Emphasizing the importance of investing in AI, he underlined that AI is changing not only the living styles, employment performances, people-to-people interaction, learning, and decision-making of people as well as the operational and business environment of organizations but also military tactics and warfare.

In this regard, significant capitalization of AI has been seen in hybrid, cyber, and network-centric warfare. As put by Lars Hilse, the current AI applications in hybrid warfare through fake news, misinformation, disinformation, cyber-physical attacks on civilian infrastructure, opinion manipulation, and adversarial reconnaissance and intelligence gathering triggers civil unrest and have serious security and economic implications.

Similar is the case with the use of AI in cyber security which demands a defense approach and practical steps towards a robust security framework based on identification and prioritization of critical infrastructure, efficient legislature, regular stress and penetration tests, continuous vulnerability testing (CVT), and multi-layered neural networks, he outlined.

5G Network Centric Warfare (NCW), as underlined by Sigit Jarot, is increasingly becoming relevant as information and AI-driven technologies are employed to gain information advantage to convert it to a competitive advantage.

He further noted that future battles would entail the weaponization of 5G; therefore, it calls for an approach to study and develop 5G for future military endeavors including 5G military decision-making, 5G smart warehousing, 5G distributed C2, 5G AR/VR, 5G for tactical millimeter wave networks, 5G non-terrestrial networks, proximity services (ProSe), and 5G geo-intelligence.

Apart from these applications, 5G is also going to make a mark in the defense market so much so that it is expected to reach $76, 014.64 million by 2030 with a compound annual growth rate of 67.7% (2021-2030).