A policy governing international relations. A country's foreign policy, also called the international relations policy, is a set of goals outlining how the country will interact with other countries. General objectives that guide the activities and relationships of one state in its interactions with other states. The development of foreign policy is influenced by domestic considerations, the policies or behaviour of other states, or plans to advance specific geopolitical designs.
Pakistan's foreign policy has been marked by a complex balancing process--the result of its history, religious heritage, and geographic position. The primary objective of that policy has been to preserve Pakistan's territorial integrity and security, which have been in jeopardy since the state's inception.
A new era began with the partition of British India in 1947 and the formation of two independent, sovereign states--India and Pakistan. Both nations searched for their place in the world order and aspired to leadership roles beyond the subcontinent.
Pakistan's desire for maximum balance and diversification in its external relations has also led to close relations with China--a valuable geopolitical connection. In 1950 Pakistan recognized the new People's Republic of China, the third non-communist state and the first Muslim country to do so. The deterioration in Sino-Indian relations that culminated in the 1962 border war provided new opportunities for Pakistan's relations with China. The two countries reached agreement on the border between them, and a road was built linking China's Xinjiang-Uygur Autonomous Region with the Northern Areas of Pakistan. China supported Pakistan diplomatically in both its 1965 and 1971 wars with India and provided Pakistan with economic and military assistance. Pakistan's China connection enabled it to facilitate the 1971 visit of United States secretary of state Henry Kissinger to that country, and in the 1980s China and the United States supplied military and economic assistance through Pakistan to the Afghan mujahidin fighting the Soviet occupation forces. Pakistan's ties with China remain strong, and friendly relations between the two countries continue to be an important factor in Pakistan's foreign policy.
China–Pakistan relations began in 1950 when Pakistan recognized the People’s Republic of China. Favourable relations with China have been a pillar of Pakistan's foreign policy. China has always helped Pakistan in each and every sector. It also supports Pakistan’s stance on Kashmir issue. China has provided its support in energy, education, communication, economic and defines sectors. It has launched great developmental projects in Pakistan. The two countries will soon carry out more advanced projects of communication including railway and road links and fibre optic. Chinese cooperation with Pakistan has reached high economic points with substantial investment from China in Pakistani infrastructural expansion. Both countries now have free trade agreements. In recent years, bilateral economic and trade cooperation between China and Pakistan have developed rapidly Pakistan and China agreed to take the bilateral trade to $15 billion by year 2011 from the existing $7 billion dollars.
After the 1990 imposition of U.S. sanctions on Pakistan, China became the country's leading arms supplier. Collaboration now includes personnel training, joint military exercises, intelligence sharing, and counterterrorism efforts.
China and Pakistan share a close military relation, with China supplying a range of modern armaments to the Pakistani defines forces. The policy of having good relations between the armed forces was taken in order to counter the balance of power in the Asia. In recent years this relationship has deepened even further by having defines agreements between Pakistan and China.
Military cooperation has strengthened with joint projects producing armaments ranging from fighter jets to guided missile frigates. China has been a steady source of military equipment to the Pakistani Army and also has helped Pakistan to set-up mass weapons production factories and also has given technology assistance and modernized facilities. Now Pakistan's Army has both short- and medium-range ballistic missiles, such as the Shaheen missile series, that experts say are modifications of Chinese imports.
In the last 20 years, the countries are involved in the joint venture of several projects to enhance military and weaponry systems, which includes JF-17 Thunder fighter aircraft, K-8 Karakorum advance training aircraft, space technology, AWACS, Al-Khalid tank, Babur cruise missile. The armies have a schedule for organizing joint military exercises. In 2007 China became Pakistan's biggest arms supplier with no strings and conditions attached; Chinese came up with a true strategic partnership.
Military cooperation has strengthened with joint projects producing armaments ranging from fighter jets to guided missile frigates. China has been a steady source of military equipment to the Pakistani Army and also has helped Pakistan to set-up mass weapons production factories and also has given technology assistance and modernized facilities. Now Pakistan's Army has both short- and medium-range ballistic missiles, such as the Shaheen missile series, that experts say are modifications of Chinese imports. In the last 20 years, the countries are involved in the joint venture of several projects to enhance military and weaponry systems, which includes JF-17 Thunder fighter aircraft, K-8 Karakorum advance training aircraft, space technology, AWACS, Al-Khalid tank, Babur cruise missile. The armies have a schedule for organizing joint military exercises. In 2007 China became Pakistan's biggest arms supplier with no strings and conditions attached; Chinese came up with a true strategic partnership.
Recently joint naval exercises were also conducted which helped both Pakistanis and Chinese to learn from their experiences. China has also built F-22 frigates for Pakistan. Frigates will be deployed for the defines of Pakistan’s maritime interests and to meet commitments in other aspects of maritime diplomacy. Out of four the first frigate was inducted in Pakistani Navy in July 2009 and last one is expected to be in 2013.
According to Pakistan’s naval analyst this deal involves the eventual transfer of Chinese technology that will help Pakistan eventually improve its naval shipbuilding capability in a way that the country has not been helped by any of its other allies (including the U.S.).
China has taken a significant step in meeting Pakistan’s military needs with the completion of a militarily important naval frigate as part of an $800 million deal, which analysts say will further deepen Islamabad’s reliance on Beijing as a key supplier of military hardware.
China has also helped Pakistan in its nuclear program. China supplies Pakistan with nuclear technology and assistance; including what many experts suspect was the blueprint for Pakistan's nuclear bomb.
China has offered to Pakistan military aid in order to fight against the terrorist activities on their soil. China promised that they will further cooperate with Pakistan in dealing firmly with terrorists. After the aid Pakistan will also purchase military equipment from China to fight terror to which China have agreed. This will strengthen cooperation between two Armed Forces. China and Pakistan also hold joint anti-terror military exercises after regular intervals.
Recently Pakistan’s Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani visited China. Both countries vowed to boost up collaboration in defines and counter-terrorism. Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani invited Chinese defines industry to set up joint ventures in his country for warships and fighters. He said that Pakistan is interested in the production of defines-related equipment and setting up of local overhauling facilities, and invited the Chinese companies to invest for joint ventures in this regard.
Pakistan and China have witnessed long-term close military exchanges and carried out comprehensive military cooperation, in accordance with the sound development of the bilateral relationship.
Attaching great importance to China-Pakistan relations, China promised to work together with Pakistan to further develop the bilateral military relations.
Pakistan cherishes the traditional friendship and cooperation with China, and is ready to make concerted efforts to strengthen military ties.
Pakistan was in one of its periodic lows in its relationship with the United States till September 11, 2001 and more specifically till the precise moments the World Trade Centre in New York and the Pentagon were rammed into by Islamic Jihadi terrorists.
Till 9/11 and in the decade preceding the hallmarks of Pakistan’s external relationships and policies were:
Pakistan-China relationship reached its highest point strategically. China with an incessant flow of blueprints, designs, and components to Pakistan facilitated it’s emergence as a nuclear weapons power with a credible missile arsenal.
Pakistan and China’s strategic dalliance was conducted in open defiance of United States sensitivities, and periodic sanctions against both.
United States officials, think tanks, and academia had rightly termed Pakistan as a 'rogue state', 'failed state' and the cess-pool of Islamic Jihadi terrorism.
Pakistan held sway over Afghanistan through its creation and protégé, the Taliban.
Afghanistan under Pakistan’s control was converted into a nursery for Islamic Jihadi terrorism and export of Islamic terrorism not only to India, but wider a field.
Osama bin Laden and his Al Qaeda outfits regularly flitted in and out of Pakistan planning and preparing for their diabolical strikes against the United States.
Pakistan’s acquisition of nuclear weapons and IRBMs from China and China’s tolerance of Pakistan’s state-sponsored Islamic Jihad served the mutual strategic interests of both countries, namely:
China was able to generate strategic embarrassments for the United States through Pakistan.
Pakistan hoping thereby to use its strategic delinquencies as bargaining chips with the United States for strategic and economic gains.
Pakistan was thus a convenient pressure point for China against the United States.
September 11, 2001 unprecedented onslaught by Islamic Jihadi terrorists on United States symbolic citadels of its military and financial might occurred due to Pakistan’s tolerance of Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda activities on Pakistan soil and from Afghanistan, under Pakistan’s military control.
Post 9/11, Pakistan under intense American coercion and warnings opted for what apparently appeared to be a complete strategic reversal of its policies. Overnight, the following happened :
Pakistan abandoned the Taliban.
Pakistan hosted nearly 48,000 US troops on Pakistani soil and the use of Pakistani Air Force bases for launching of American military operations against Afghanistan.
Pakistan apparently allowed its strategic convergences with China to lapse.
The United States very gracefully sanctified Pakistan’s strategic reversal with glorified labels of ' strategic partner in global counter-terrorism War ', 'frontline state' and in the process beatified and accorded political legitimacy to the Pakistani military dictator, General Musharraf.
Against such a backdrop, the moot question arises and has escaped due analysis in public debate is whether Pakistan’s strategic reversal post 9/11 signalled an end or a dilution of the Pakistan-China relationship.
In the immediate aftermath of 9/11 and Pakistan’s apparent willingness to be embraced by the United States, it was logical to assume that Pakistani strategic alliance was on the way to dilution if not a total change. Pakistan seemed to be enjoying the American embrace once again.
However, by the spring of 2002, unfolding events started giving clear indications that Pakistan’s strategic alliance with China stood unchanged. These unfolding events were:
Pakistan’s continued receipt of IRBMs and missile assemblies from China, and China-facilitated supplies from North Korea.
Pakistan’s signing of a defines pact with China with the focus on joint defines research and production.
Exchange of high-level defines visits.
Pakistan’s invitation to China for development and construction of her strategic naval base at Gwadar on the Makran coast. This Pakistan-China defines project has far wider strategic significance for two reasons. It gives China access and basing facilities in the Indian Ocean and in close proximity to the Straits of Hormuz.
None of the above developments in Pakistan-China strategic relationship post 9/11 contribute in any way to the United States global war against terrorism or bringing back Afghanistan to normalcy. On the contrary, these Pakistan-China developments as in the period prior to 9/11 create strategic embarrassments for US. Further, these developments and specifically the Chinese involvement in the Pak naval project at Gwadar are strategically destabilizing to South-West Asia region – a region strategically crucial for United States national security interests.
The Pakistan-China strategic alliance did not emerge as a matter of convenience. It emerged out of strategic compulsions of both Pakistan and China and the ensuing strategic convergences. Pakistan-China strategic convergences continue to exist.
The United States need to note that unlike the Pakistan-United States strategic relationship, the Pakistan-China strategic alliance was not born from Cold War compulsions. To that extent it will prevail and Pakistan’s strategic relationship with China will continue to be the cornerstone of Pakistan’s foreign and strategic policies.9/11 has not thwarted Pakistan’s slide into Islamic fundamentalism. In that context also, it is China, which continues to be perceived in Pakistan as a bulwark against an over-domineering United States.
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