Intentional Relations

Foreign policy:
There are three impulses, in Pakistan’s FP, through which one can understands Pakistan’s FP.

1. NORMATIVE Impulse: It is a constitutive element of Pakistani nation-state project, including

ideological and self-definitional tropes such as culture, values, religion and history based on
Islamic identity.
2. STATIST Impulse: It demonstrates a path-dependent fixation on a traditional paradigm of
security as a defence against external threats.
3. STRUCTURAL Impulse: It is indicative of policy input from the international system, and
specifically great powers over which Pakistan exercise little control. The growing rivalry
between China and US directly impacts Pakistan’s FP.

These three imperatives provide insight into Pakistan’s two key FP goals: achieving economic
redemption and regulating traditional security.

Challenges for Pakistan’s FP:

1. Zeroing on its national interest as opposed to normative idealism in its ties with the Muslim
world and consolidating CPEC in order to reverse its economic downturn
2. Promoting regional peace with neighbouring countries and curtailing military threats that
compromise economic giants
3. Continued global multilateral engagement with international community to eliminate
either/or scenarios where Pakistan is pushed to choose between the US and China

PAK-US
CIVIL MILITARY: PAK-US

Both Ms Curtis and Mr Haqqani believed Pakistan and the US were not as close as when America
was still in Afghanistan. Ms Curtis said the US wanted to ensure Pakistan did not get closer to China
and that negative views about Islamabad regarding Afghanistan still prevailed. The US, she added,
“wants Pakistan to support it in Ukraine”.

Mr Haqqani noted the US-Pakistan relationship began as an economic necessity for Islamabad after
the Partition, but its leaders paid little attention to the economic aspect. He added “the sustenance
of relations must be economic and not military”.

The recent report published by the Hudson Institute note that “a geostrategic competition with
Russia and China that involves Pakistan and Afghanistan … may be an opportune moment to lay the
foundations for a sustainable US-Pakistan relationship”.

INDIA PAKISTAN
The on Prohibition of Attacks against Nuclear Installations and Facilities between Pakistan and India
was signed on December 31, 1988, and ratified on January 27, 1991.
The list of nuclear installations and facilities in Pakistan was, on 1 January 2023, officially handed
over to a representative of the Indian High Commission in Islamabad at the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs today.

In October 2022, Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said he hoped to absorb Gilgit-Baltistan to
complete PM Modi’s mission.

Lt Gen Upendra Dwivedi — the general officer commanding-in-chief of the Indian army’s northern
command — stoked hot embers (hot fragment of coal,‫ )انگار‬by endorsing Singh’s statement and
referring to the resolutions passed by the Indian parliament.

Dawn

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, ahead of his visit to Japan for the G7 summit in Hiroshima on
Friday, noted that his country wants “normal and neighbourly relations” with Pakistan. However, he
reiterated India’s oft-repeated position on the issue, saying the “onus is on Islamabad to create a
conducive environment free from terrorism and hostilities”.

Pakistan has rejected the Indian stance and earlier this month told India, “Let’s not get caught up in
weaponising terrorism for diplomatic point-scoring”.

Indian terrorism
The state minister for foreign affairs, Hina Rabbani Khar, said that India’s objective was to
undermine Pakistan’s peace and security through terrorism, saying “no country had used terrorism
better than India”. This was said after finding of Indian state’s involvement in blast near Jamaatud
Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed’s Johar Town residence in Lahore, which claimed four lives.

“I don’t think I need to remind anyone that India has had a role in destabilising its neighbouring
countries and weaken their economies to try and pursue its hegemonic designs in the region,” she
said, adding that the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and Balochistan were two examples of this.

Dawn

A former member of Narendra Modi-led government made a startling revelation regarding the 2019
Pulwama attack, alleging that Indian prime minister silenced him on the security lapses that led to
the incident so that they could benefit from it by blaming it on Pakistan.

Malik, who was governor during the Pulwama terrorist attack of February 2019 and the scrapping of
Article 370 in August of that year, also said the prime minister is “ill-informed” and “ignorant”
about Kashmir and told him not to speak about the Union home ministry’s lapses which led to the
devastating terrorist attack on soldiers in Pulwama in February 2019.

"I had sensed that all of this onus will be diverted towards Pakistan so it's better to keep quiet,"
Malik said, confirming that the strategy was to derive electoral benefit for BJP from the incident.

The News April

PAKISTAN : CHINA
Pakistan had been invited to the Second 3-day Summit for Democracy being held on 29-30 March
2023, initiated by President Biden, in 2021 as well, but did not attend due to concerns related to
China. This year, the US has invited over 100 countries, including Taiwan but once again excluded
China and Turkiye.

Beijing had welcomed Islamabad's move, reinforcing the perception that Pakistan had taken the
decision at the behest of China.

TURKIYE : PAKISTAN
The Milgem project — based on a joint collaboration between Turkiye and Pakistan — was signed
with ASFAT Inc., a Turkish state-owned Defence contractor firm in 2018, according to which the
Pakistan navy would acquire four Milgem-class ships from Turkey.

Speaking about the project today, PM Shehbaz said Milgem Corvette was a “great step forward” in
terms of defence cooperation between the two countries.

US : CHINA
WASHINGTON: US authorities announced a ban Friday on the import or sale of
communications equipment deemed "an unacceptable risk to national
security" — including gear from Chinese giants Huawei Technologies and ZTE.
Nov 2022.
In 2019, it put Huawei on a trade blacklist that barred US suppliers from doing
business with it, cutting the Chinese firm — also a top smartphone brand — off
from Google´s Android mobile operating system.
Maleeha Lodhi
The outlook is uncertain, especially as Washington’s policy of containing China, reaffirmed in the
Biden administration’s national security strategy, and an assertive Chinese pushback, will keep
relations on a tense track. Tech de-coupling will accelerate, military competition will intensify and
Taiwan will remain a dangerous flashpoint in relations.

CHINA : KSA
Oil from Saudi Arabia alone accounted for 17 per cent of China’s imports last year,
and last month, Qatar announced a 27-year natural gas deal with China.
Xi’s visit comes during tensions between Saudi Arabia and the United States, its
long-time partner and security guarantor, over oil production, human rights issues
and regional security.
It follows US President Joe Biden’s trip to Jeddah in July, before midterm elections
when he failed to persuade the Saudis to pump more oil to calm prices.
The Gulf countries, strategic partners of Washington, are bolstering ties with
China as part of an eastward turn that involves diversifying their fossil fuel-reliant
economies.
One potential area of focus was a China-GCC free trade agreement under
discussion for nearly two decades.

KSA – IRAN