The next four years define our foreign policy and our place in the world. Pakistan has also been able to balance between world powers and try to allow many foreign powers to communicate and bond multi-lateral relations.
Since 2015, Pakistan was in tremendous support of western unity. It went all out to protect its allies in the UN and in NATO and made it a point to show support for the blatant discrediting of discord. Now, Pakistan has shifted support towards blatant support for monetary polarisation. This monetary polarisation is in polarity with its northern neighbour and its rare beginnings and novel friendships align with a conflict of interest.
This does not prove that Pakistan made its place through dependence, but rather cooperation, which is now deemed as rather controversial, and wrongfully so.
Ambitions and reality
The Maritime Silk Road Initiative (MSRI) is one of the initiatives that have helped diversify change in the South Asian range and has controlled main Trade in the region. This will provide a more intellectual construction of policy. In the book, “China’s Maritime Silk Road Initiative and South Asia; A Political Economic Analysis of its Purposes, Perils, and Promise”, in which the title truly fulfills its promise, the author’s outline, “The so-called CPEC would develop links between the Arabian Sea and China’s Xinjiang province through Pakistan, including pipeline and road/rail links from the Chinese border to Gwadar.” This highlighted the accurately regional cooperation, which has ambitious plans to revolutionize money matters and fiscal policy.
A report in the USIP, charted real deficits between these ambitions and reality, saying, problems at the “Karachi port and the resulting demurrage charges can be costly.” However, divergent patterns in the book also showed a more optimistic page, “Still, the Gwadar port could offer some distinct advantages in trans-shipment.”
Read more: China, Pakistan determined in promoting CPEC construction: Chinese FM
On the SBP‘s site, it says, multi-lateral trade increased from “ US$ 1.07 billion in 1997 to US$ 4.26 billion in 2005”, and imports reached US$ 12.7 billion in 2019. But the corridor does not feature large-scale profitable and industrial work but rather micro fractional work in infrastructure through local Chinese investments and labor companies, which assist the Pakistani government with bit-size projects. This, all a look into the long-term benefits China can have for its expansion through the middle-east and South Asian sub-continent, and for Pakistan, a lift for its people from inexcusable levels of poverty. But it also might be worth adding, that in this Global Pandemic, trade has become increasingly difficult, especially with the reflection of the EU and Brexit, just taking effect.
Pakistan, the EU, and US
The EU has for long been an average partner of Pakistan‘s. It’s not so reliable footprint on Pakistan‘s economy and social structure, helps it stay out of political shifts of the world, though, notable personalities have constructive and pinpointed approaches about their differences. With the UK in the economic spotlight, the rest of the world is seeking to wait on such a reliable and yet such a significant partner in the Schengen region. It is estimated that Pakistan‘s third-largest trading partner is that very region and has a relationship worth $4.78 billion. This, only a fraction of the amount of GDP influx it receives from the west. But the EU‘s sudden focus shows a divergence of attention it had on the sub-continent, particularly India, and how the polarization repelled to financial sectors in this area.
The next four years define our foreign policy and our place in the world. Pakistan has also been able to balance between world powers and try to allow many foreign powers to communicate and bond multi-lateral relations.
This multicultural gateway also has a history, more significant than its present pecuniary standing. Since the ’60s, Pakistan has shown great interest in aspiring defense capabilities and has made role models, whether in or outside of the continent. Perhaps, the most memorable and headline-making stories in the past were the great amounts of defense equipment, Pakistan acquired from the United States, recalling once unified and bi-partisan support for Pakistan from the U.S. Further, the flood of agricultural support from its overseas partners laid the foundation for its now, world-famous quality. This does not prove that Pakistan made its place through dependence, but rather cooperation, which is now deemed as rather controversial, and wrongfully so.
The more concerning of matters is really the concerns and conflicts that tend to mix with the economic policy. These include concerns amongst senior officials regarding the increase of messaging with India. But despite such rivalry, Pakistan must focus on its own relationship, not on the adversarial relationships. It’s honestly, just a distraction.
Read more: Op-ed: the India-Israel nexus and its implications for Pakistan
Juan Abbas is a freelance writer for the Daily Times. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Global Village Space.