Reaching out to Moscow

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  • Russian deputy defence minister’s landmark visit

The nadir of Pak-Russia relations was hit during the Cold War when on May 1, 1960, a CIA U-2 spy plane taking off from a secret facility at Badaber, Peshawar, was shot down deep in Soviet territory and the pilot Gary Powers captured, causing much embarrassment to Washington and earning complicit Pakistan a sharp rebuke from then Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev. The zenith of the formerly marginalised relationship was the Islamabad visit this week by Russian deputy defence minister, meetings with COAS and senior officials of other services, culminating in signing of the groundbreaking ‘Contract on Admissions of Service Members of Pakistan in Russian Federations Training Institutes’, which facilitates training of Pakistani officers in Russian military academies, formerly the exclusive preserve of US establishments. The Russia-Pakistan Joint Military Consultative institutionalises future enhanced cooperation.    

Russian and Pakistan are presently both at the receiving end of Trumpian politics, its hymn of hate, with Pakistan’s security-related US aid drying up on the ‘do more’ pretext and the country’s significant anti-terror role basely denigrated in presidential tweets, and Russia facing trade war and sanctions for its alleged role in 2016 US presidential elections and London nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy and his daughter. In sharp contrast to Trump, the Russian guest greatly appreciated Pakistan’s role in stamping out terrorism on its soil, and sought further cooperation to defeat global extremism. Indeed, mutual trust, commonality of interests, convergence of views and fast-forwarding Afghan peace have afforded an immense ‘tangible’ fillip to their burgeoning defence partnership.  

With Washington’s tilt towards India to contain the earlier ‘sleeping giant’, Pakistan desperately needs to diversify its acquisition of sophisticated weaponry. While it received four Russian Mi-35 attack helicopters in 2017, the quest for advanced air defence systems, SU-35 aircraft and T-90 tanks will remain hostage to the country’s ability to pay hard cash and India’s clout via still considerable investment in Soviet armaments, such as its 2016 contract worth $5.5 billion for advanced S-400 air defence system. Still, two joint training Druzba (Friendship) exercises held in 2016 and 2017, and Russian invitation to Pakistan for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s ‘Peace Mission 2018’ joint military exercise in September, augur well for the future.