EDITORIAL: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's successful visit to Pakistan was perhaps one of Islamabad's biggest foreign policy achievements of the last few decades. As Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi very rightly said after their meeting, Russia is not just a leading global nation but also a crucial regional player and it is in every way in the interest of Pakistan to have warm, constructive ties with Moscow. The long years of estrangement and hostility between the two countries, first because we sided with Uncle Sam during the Cold War and played a very central role in the so-called anti-Soviet jihad and then because of the hangover of the Afghan war, no doubt amounted to one of the gravest geographic and diplomatic injustices of modern regional politics. It would, especially in hindsight, have been far better to build and cultivate long-term alliances closer to home and become part of a regional axis rather than have one foot here and the other there; as we did for so long. Regional players like Russia, China and Iran were busy building just such a partnerships in all the years that we invested in getting closer to friends and lenders far away.
Yet it goes to Pakistan's credit that it is now good friends with two main players of this part of the world - China and Russia - and is also working on a more mutually beneficial and productive relationship with Iran. Foreign Minister Lavrov also held detailed discussions with Prime Minister Imran Khan and Army Chief General Bajwa, and later expanded on the desire for a long-term arrangement with Pakistan that would include economic and commercial deals as well as military and counter-terrorism exercises. The Russians also backed their earlier gift of 50,000 doses of Sputnik V vaccine with a promise of 150,000 more, which a grateful Pakistani nation is taking as a goodwill gesture meant to seal this deal of working towards a constructive partnership. The main focus should now be on getting work started on the North-South gas pipeline from Karachi to Lahore so the process of binding the two countries together through economic programs can begin on the ground as well.
It is, indeed, a matter of immense satisfaction that these two countries are now putting their heads together to clean up the mess in Afghanistan. Indeed together Islamabad and Moscow can command the kind of leverage that is required to really push Afghanistan's peace talks towards a workable conclusion. Once peace is achieved all countries of the region can engage in yet more lucrative commerce, which is eventually the aim of all modern day partnerships. The tilt towards Russia is wise also because Moscow, and to a lesser extent Beijing, calls the shots in what is emerging as one of the most significant blocs of the world. In addition to these two power houses, it includes countries like Iran and India. Pakistan is, at least geographically, the best placed among all of them and should also look for a position in this group.
The prime minister, foreign minister and the army chief briefed Foreign Minister Lavrov about Pakistan's concerns about India, and what New Delhi is up to in Illegally Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir, so there is also the prospect of the likes of China and Russia, if not also Iran, nudging India towards talks with Pakistan. This region, just like the rest of the world, is changing and so must all countries in it. In just the last few years Pakistan has emerged from a mini-civil war in its badlands, and one of the worst bouts with extremist terrorism anywhere in the world, to become a secure and stable democracy that the region's big players are beginning to take long-term interest in. We must play our cards very carefully and building bridges with Russia, after cementing our place as one of China's closest allies, is about as well as we could have played them at this stage. With better Pak-Russia ties the two countries, and indeed the whole region, will grow.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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