The foreign policy of the country witnessed major swings during the year 2012 as a consequence of the mistrust between Islamabad and Washington. The major focus during the year remained on rebuilding the estranged ties between Pakistan and United States, which saw some progress after Islamabad reopened the ground lines of communication (GLOCs) to Nato forces stationed in Afghanistan in July 2012 after seven-month long blockade.
Independent analysts do not see any major breakthrough in co-operation between the two allies during the second term of President Barrack Obama whose main focus is said to be on domestic issues to ensure he leaves a positive legacy. According to Irfan Malik, a US based Pakistan-born intellectual, who is also President USPAK Foundation, since US is in the withdrawal phase from Afghanistan after a decade long war, Pakistan is no more its (US) priority as it is only looking for short term co-operation as long as US troops are present in Afghanistan.
Terming Pak-US relation as a "forced marriage", Malik pointed out that the estranged relations between the two countries were mainly because of mistrust which is yet to be removed. The CIA's drone operation has been a major bone of contention in the improvement of mutual relations, as Pakistan has termed the drone strikes illegal, violative of its sovereignty as well as in contravention of the international laws while the Obama administration considers them an effective tool to go after the militants believed to be hiding in Pakistan tribal areas along Pak-Afghan border.
However analysts citing Wikileaks maintain that the Pakistani officialdom is fully supportive of the drone strikes which accounts for their continuation. Pakistan can easily down any drone, they add, and hence the drone strikes continuation itself is an indication of continued support from Pakistan.
Foreign Office is, however, confident that despite many ups and downs, the ties between the two countries are now improving. "With the US, though we witnessed some ups and downs, but at the end of the day, issues were resolved and now we can say with a fair amount of confidence, that relations are moving in a positive direction," said Foreign Office spokesman Moazzam Ahmad Khan.
Similarly, paying special attention to developing close co-operative relations with neighbouring countries was also a key feature of the foreign policy guidelines but no significant achievement was made during the same year. Pakistan's relation with India, according to analysts saw slight improvement after the start of cricket diplomacy under the resumed dialogue process following Mumbai terrorist attack.
They further argue that confidence building measures like President Zardari's India visit in April 2012, the Foreign Minister level talks in September as well as the recent liberalised visa regime between the two countries have helped ease the strained relations. But, they stressed the need is to go beyond the CBMs in order to resolve outstanding issues like Kashmir dispute, Siachen glacier, Sir Creek, water issues and further improve people-to-people contacts.
Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh's visit to Pakistan on the invitation of President Zardari and the grant of most favoured nation (MFN) status to Indian are pending. Despite various efforts, Pakistan's relations with Afghanistan remained strained during the outgoing year mainly because of mistrust and blame game that begins after each terror incident in Afghanistan.
Pakistan and Afghanistan should have exemplary relations and co-operation as they have religious and ethnic ties however lack of joint strategy to cope with militancy and the blame-game are the main hurdles in improving the ties between the two. Islamabad blames Afghan militants and those who fled the Swat operation for routine cross border infiltration while Kabul accuses Pakistan of sheltering Haqqani network as well as its spy agencies for co-ordinating terror attacks inside Afghanistan.
On trade side, in July 2012, Afghanistan and Pakistan agreed to extend Afghan-Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement (APTTA) to Tajikistan in what will be the first step for the establishment of a North-South trade corridor. Analysts are hopeful that the proposed agreement will provide facilities to Tajikistan to use Pakistan's Gwadar and Karachi ports for its imports and exports while Pakistan will enjoy trade with Tajikistan under terms similar to the transit arrangement with Afghanistan.
As far as the Afghan reconciliation process is concerned, the two countries recently agreed on far reaching measures including release of some Afghan Taliban detainees by Pakistan in order to facilitate the peace process. The process was the result of the resumed dialogue process following Afghan High Peace Council chairman Salahuddin Rabbani led peace delegation's visit to Pakistan in November 2012 which was followed by Afghan Foreign Minister Dr Zalmai Rassoul's visit.
However, the two sides are yet to formally sign a key document namely Pakistan-Afghan Strategic Partnership Agreement, a draft of which was handed over by Pakistan to Dr Zalmai Rassoul during his visit to Pakistan on November 30, 2012. The year also witnessed some development in interaction between Pakistan and Russia, however, the important visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to Pakistan is yet to take place which he postponed in September 2012. The deferment of Putin's visit also resulted in delay of a quadrilateral summit of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Russia on October 2-3, 2012.
On October 03, 2012, Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani visited Russia, which interestingly coincided with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Viktorovich's visit to Pakistan for bilateral consultation on the same day. According to Foreign Office spokesman, Putin's visit is still pending and the two sides are working to finalize the mutually convenient dates through diplomatic channels. He further said that Russian President has also invited President Zardari to visit Moscow and the dates for his visit are yet to be finalised.
As far as relations with European Union are concerned, the year witnessed important development in November when the trade package, the EU announced in response to the devastating floods that hit Pakistan, entered into force. The EU is Pakistan's most important trading partner accounting to 21.2 percent of Pakistan's total exports. The EU parliament and the Council signed the measures giving emergency autonomous trade preferences to Pakistan on October 25 under which certain goods from Pakistan can enter the EU countries duty-free or will be subject to certain ceilings (tariff rate quotas). In addition to these special measures, Pakistan benefits from preferential access to the EU market under the Generalised Scheme of Preferences.
The year ended with D-8 summit which Islamabad hosted on November 22. The Foreign Office termed the event a big achievement and success. The eighth summit brought together five government heads, while Bangladesh, Egypt and Malaysia chose to send their representatives. According to independent analysts, the Bangladeshi PM Sheikh Hasina Wajed's absence, apparently because of differences with Islamabad, was understandable - though regrettable. Similarly, they added that Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi's decision not to attend the summit was also disappointing.
They, however, stated that the participation of some charismatic personalities - including Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - aroused hopes that the delegates would follow up on their pledges in order to use the forum as an effective tool for strengthening regional co-operation as well as relations among the member states.
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