Draft DPP 2020 needs to cut out obfuscation, repetitions, and bring out core issues for the consideration of the decision-makers in a concise and clear manner.
The lack of international cooperation and trust deficit to tackle the COVID-19 crisis is stark. The pandemic of fear may deepen an ongoing shift towards increased anarchy reflected in ‘everyone for himself’ and could further energise the process of weakening international institutions and agreements.
As the COVID-19 cases continue to rise, the key priorities for the GCC countries are to contain the spread of the pandemic, maintain the flow of trade across their borders and preserve their economies from adverse impacts.
China is too important for Pakistan’s power elite, given that their stakes are tied firmly to the success of Chinese-funded infrastructure projects. Similarly, China would also need dependable and loyal allies like Pakistan willing to support and disseminate the emerging Chinese narrative on COVID-19.
The political divisions and economic challenges facing the country have complicated the government’s response to the pandemic, putting the population at risk and threatening to undermine the popularity of President Erdogan.
The present crisis is as much of a challenge as an opportunity to infuse financial realism in defence planning and bring about concomitant reforms in the quickest possible timeframe.
With a new found celebrity status among the video conferencing applications, Zoom now faces a massive privacy and security threat as the platform’s default settings are not secure enough.
The Hasina Government is in overdrive to meet the Covid-19 challenge head on, and ensure that this unforeseen threat does not snowball into a major national crisis.
There is a need to act quickly on the issue of force majeure to scotch all speculations about how the MoD is going to deal with the inevitable delay in performance of contracts and instil confidence among the vendors.
