Pakistan in World Affairs

Pakistan in world affairs

The aims of Pakistan's foreign policy

• to protect Pakistan's independence and security, especially against India;
• to settle Kashmir and other disputes;
• to build friendly relations with Muslim countries (the Islamic world) and with major powers (for aid, trade and arms);
• to support the UN and peaceful settlement of disputes;
• to develop the economy through trade and aid.

Pakistan as a nuclear power

Why Pakistan has refused to sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Because India has not signed it and has nuclear weapons; Pakistan says it will join only if India does (and the same for the CTBT). It wants a nuclear-free South Asia or equal treatment with India.

Reasons for having nuclear weapons. Security and deterrence against a larger India, which had also tested its weapons; national pride. Problems: international sanctions, the cost, the risk of conflict, and the proliferation scandal over A.Q. Khan's network (2004).

Relations with Bangladesh

• After 1971 Pakistan was hostile at first. Pakistan recognised Bangladesh in February 1974 (the OIC meeting in Lahore).
• Residual problems: the repatriation of the "stranded Pakistanis" (Biharis) in Bangladesh, the division of assets and debts, and demands for an apology and compensation by Bangladesh for the war.
• Full diplomatic relations began in 1974–75, air and trade links followed in the later 1970s, and both countries are members of the OIC and of SAARC.
• Relations later became more friendly, with trade and cultural contacts, but the problems have not been fully settled.

Relations with India

Attempts at friendship. The Tashkent Declaration (1966); the Simla Agreement (1972); Rajiv Gandhi–Benazir Bhutto agreements (1988: not to attack each other's nuclear sites, and 1991: advance notice of military exercises); the Lahore Declaration (February 1999), when Vajpayee travelled by bus to Lahore; later peace talks and the Agra summit (2001). Each was followed by new tension.

Relations with Afghanistan

• Pakhtoonistan: Afghanistan did not accept the Durand Line (1893) and in 1947 voted against Pakistan's admission to the UN. Afghan leaders demanded a state of Pakhtoonistan for the Pathans of the NWFP. Daud Khan (Prime Minister 1953–63 and President 1973–78) strongly revived the claim, and relations were closed several times (the borders were closed in 1961–63). Zulfikar Ali Bhutto supported the Islamists against Daud.
• The Soviet invasion (1979): Pakistan opposed it, supported the mujahideen, and hosted 3 million refugees (see chapter 14). It moved closer to the US and gained aid, but became a target of the USSR and Afghanistan.
• The post-Soviet legacy: after the Soviet withdrawal (1989), civil war in Afghanistan, the rise of the Taliban (1994–96), more refugees, the arms and drugs culture, and sectarian militancy in Pakistan. Pakistan recognised the Taliban government (1997), one of three countries to do so.
• Trade and religious ties (transit trade via Karachi, the Khyber and Chaman routes; cultural and Pathan family links) are significant.

Relations with Iran

• Iran was the first country to recognise Pakistan (1947) and had close ties. Both belonged to CENTO and the RCD (Regional Cooperation for Development, 1964, with Turkey; it became the ECO in 1985).
• Before the Islamic Revolution (1979): the Shah was friendly with Pakistan and a US ally. After it, Iran left CENTO, Pakistan recognised the new government and relations stayed good though differences arose over Afghanistan (the support for rival groups), and Shia–Sunni tensions in Pakistan.
• The Revolution's impact: Pakistan became less dependent on Iran, and sectarian divisions grew.

Relations with China

• Pakistan recognised the People's Republic of China in 1950. Relations became close from the 1960s, as both had tension with India (after the Sino-Indian War of 1962).
• Boundary agreement (1963): settled the border between Pakistan and China (Kashmir/Xinjiang).
• China became a major buyer of Pakistani cotton, PIA began flights to China, and China helped to build the Chashma nuclear power plant (operating from about 1999–2000). In the 1971 war China gave diplomatic support only, and in the 1990s it advised Pakistan to settle Kashmir peacefully.
• Trade and bilateral relations: China gave military and economic aid (tanks, aircraft, Heavy Mechanical Complex at Taxila, power plants), and Pakistan helped China to reopen links with the USA (1971, Kissinger's secret trip via Islamabad).
• Karakoram Highway (KKH): built by Pakistan and China (1966–78), linking Islamabad with Kashgar through the Khunjerab Pass, at 4,700 m; a symbol of friendship and a trade route.
• China's relations with India have been competitive and sometimes hostile (1962 war, border disputes), while with Pakistan they are friendly.
• Pakistan's policy on Muslim minorities in China (the Uighurs in Xinjiang): it does not interfere, so as not to harm relations.

Relations with the USSR/Russia

• Pakistan leaned to the West in the 1950s (SEATO, CENTO), and the USSR supported India over Kashmir; the U-2 incident (1960) used Peshawar as a base. Relations improved in the 1960s–70s (Ayub Khan visited Moscow in April 1965): the USSR helped to build the Pakistan Steel Mills at Karachi (work began in 1973) and Tashkent (1966) was held under Soviet mediation.
• Central Asian republics: after 1991, Pakistan sought trade and links with the new Muslim states (ECO).
• The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan (1979) led to hostility, with Pakistan as a front-line state.
• After 1991 closer ties with Russia developed. Nawaz Sharif visited Moscow in 1999.

Relations with the USA, the UK and the Commonwealth

Pakistan and the Muslim world

Good relations with other Muslim countries have been a main aim of foreign policy. Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states are linked to Pakistan by the Hajj, trade, oil and the many Pakistanis working there (whose remittances matter to the economy). Pakistan strongly supports the Palestinians, and has no diplomatic relations with Israel. Pakistan hosted the second OIC summit in Lahore (1974). In 1985 Pakistan was a founding member of SAARC (founded at Dhaka), a body for cooperation in South Asia whose work is limited by India–Pakistan tension.

Pakistan and the United Nations

• Pakistan joined the UN in September 1947. It has served on the Security Council several times, and contributed peacekeeping troops.
• UN involvement in disputes: Kashmir (the UNCIP, resolutions for a plebiscite, 1948–49, and the UNMOGIP observer force); the Canal Water dispute (settled by the World Bank, not the UN); the Indo-Pakistan wars (the ceasefire in 1965 was supported by the UN) and the war over Bangladesh (the UN called for a ceasefire in 1971).
• Evaluation: the UN has been useful as a mediator and peace-keeper, but it failed to settle Kashmir or enforce its resolutions.
• UN agencies' work in Pakistan: UNICEF (child health, vaccination and education), UNESCO (education, culture and heritage, such as Mohenjo-daro and Taxila), WHO (health, disease control such as polio), and the WFP (World Food Programme: food aid for refugees, disasters and nutrition).

Outline. 1972 programme (Bhutto); 1974 India's test made it urgent; Kahuta and A.Q. Khan (1976); US concern and sanctions (Pressler, 1990); 1987 claim; 1998 tests after India's; refusal to sign the NPT unless India does. Comment: the aim was deterrence, but at the cost of sanctions and tension.