Russia-China-Pakistan Axis of Power
Once again Pakistan is reassessing its relations with America. Once again America has attacked the sovereignty of Pakistan.
Since our inception, the USA has been using Pakistan for its own interests and abandoning relations with us when they feel they do not need us. On the other hand, Pakistan is forced to put up with this manipulation and blackmail due to our need of monetary assistance, trade and to keep the USAID projects going smoothly in the country’s health, energy and educational sectors.
The question is, how long will we allow ourselves to be used and manipulated by Americans? When will the slogan of Ayub’s book “Friends Not Masters” be in practice to deal with the US?
America just refused to hand over F-16s to Pakistan on loan and also gave their consent to give membership of Nuclear Suppliers Group to India, but not Pakistan, to pressurise us to take noticeable steps against Haqqanis and to keep political instability intact with drone attacks in Pakistan. In response to that, China – an all weather friend – jumped in and vetoed the decision of America to provide NSG to India, condemned the incident of American drone strikes on Pakistani territory, the latest of which happened in May this year, and asked the world to respect Pakistan’s sovereignty. China standing with Pakistan at the time of need is highly commendable.
Pakistan should reassess their foreign policy in creating alliances with countries. Pakistan needs to further strengthen its bilateral ties with China and Russia. Geographically, Russia and China are closer and the tripartite relations amongst the three countries will make them collectively stronger in front of any foreign power that tries to look at them with an evil eye.
China is already investing 46 billion dollars in Pakistan for the development of CPEC, which is going to be the real game changer for us and will have a domino effect on the overall market of Pakistan by encouraging other foreign private entities and governments to invest in the development of our country. In Sindh, Chinese language is being widely taught and Punjab government has also started up a program to send a group of students to China to live and learn Chinese language there. These efforts to remove the language barrier, and the Pakistani students participating, will be directly involved in CPEC.
Due to the assurance of safety by the military (because of Zarb-e-Azb) and economic development in Pakistan, media perception of the country will change on a global level and tourism will automatically rise, unlike in Dubai, because of having a competitive edge of being already culturally and historically rich.
On the other hand, Pakistan’s relations with Russia also require attention. CASA-1000 has just been signed and Russia is directly financing this mega-energy project of transmitting power generation from Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan to Pakistan. Moscow has also increased its military and technical cooperation with Islamabad recently. Talking about the cultural and literary activities, Russian government has honored Faiz with Lenin prize – a Soviet equivalent to Nobel Peace Prize, and called him “our poet” after his demise. Russian Culture center in Karachi, in 2010, staged Chekov’s plays, whereas Pakistani and South Asian literature is also widely famous in Russia.
In Russian War Games 2015, Pakistan actively participated side-by-side China and other 5 countries. Pakistan can provide cotton and agricultural support to Russia and in return can be benefited with Russian ammunition and machinery. Once our relations with Russia improve, ties with Iran will also be improved and so our issues of oil and gas will be resolved. Following this format, more positive relationships with Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan will be built, leading to a strong regional coalition.
Why does Pakistan have to reach across the world to America, and in return, only be used by them? Pakistan needs to work on their relations with Russia as they are doing with China. This way our dependency on America will be lessened to almost none. Then America, if they want, can be our friends but should not be allowed to be our masters in any case whatsoever. Otherwise, the US will be doing whatever they feel is in their own interests and we would always be “strongly protesting and condemning” their attacks on the sovereignty of Pakistan.