ISLAMABAD, Dec 03 (APP): The Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad (ISSI) Wednesday hosted the first working session of its Islamabad Conclave-2025, where leading experts cautioned that South Asia’s security environment was becoming increasingly fragile amid fast-evolving global multipolarity and intensifying geopolitical competition.
The session, organized by the India Study Centre (ISC) under the theme “South Asian Regional Security Order Amid Evolving Multipolarity,” featured a keynote address by former Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, General Zubair Mahmood Hayat, NI(M), HI(M), said a press release.
Other speakers included Ambassador Imran Ahmed Siddiqui, Additional Foreign Secretary (Asia-Pacific), Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Pakistan; Ambassador Zamir Akram, Pakistan’s former Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva; Dr. Shilata Pokharel, energy and security politics expert from Nepal; and Professor Huang Yunsong, Associate Dean of International Studies, Sichuan University, China.
Gen. Zubair Mahmood Hayat said the world’s return to multipolarity marked a unique and unprecedented phase driven by digital independence, climate stress, and the rise of civilizational states. South Asia, he noted, sat at the “centre-stage” of this transformation but remained without an independent and self-sustained security system. He warned that smaller South Asian states were facing a paradox in navigating fast-paced power shifts, where hedging among major players amplified their sovereignty yet also exposed them to new vulnerabilities. Gen. Hayat urged major powers to avoid repeating the historical pattern of fueling regional militarization and instead help South Asian states build their own problem-solving capacities. He stressed that countries in the region must leverage multipolarity for economic benefit, strengthen institutional resilience, and collectively confront non-traditional threats such as climate change, water stress, pandemics, and environmental hazards.
Earlier, in his welcome remarks, Director ISC Dr Khurram Abbas identified renewed global interest in South Asia, ongoing political transitions, and the absence of meaningful regional integration as key factors reshaping the region’s geopolitical environment. Ambassador Imran Ahmed Siddiqui pointed to rising hegemonic impulses and the use of foreign policy for domestic political gains as major obstacles to cooperation. Former ambassador Zamir Akram said the presence of multiple global powers offered both opportunities and risks, arguing that a balanced US-China-Russia engagement could help stabilise South Asia, though border tensions among nuclear neighbours remained a serious concern. Dr Shilata Pokharel noted that smaller states like Nepal, Maldives, and Bhutan were seeking to maximise benefits from global power competition, while Professor Huang Yunsong urged regional governments to move beyond traditional securitisation and prioritise geo-economics and inclusive cooperation to address shared challenges.
The session ended with presentation of mementos to the speakers by Ambassador Khalid Mahmood, Chairman BoG, ISSI.