Copyright pakobserver
GIVEN the context of the growing US-China rivalry and the fact that the primary objective of a country ‘s foreign policy is to defend its national interests, Pakistan’s foreign policy managers have the top priority to weave a tapestry of striking a strategic balancing act in maintaining Islamabad’s cordial and robust relations with both superpowers, the US and China. Ostensibly, under President Trump’s second term, Pakistan-US relations have touched new heights. Pakistan leverages its relationship with both powers, benefiting from US cooperation in multiple sectors while maintaining deep ties with China. Despite the fact that the academic community seems divided on this issue, the call of pragmatism strongly supports a balancing act in our foreign policy. It goes without saying, amid the intensifying Washington-Beijing competition rivalry, Islamabad ‘’occupies a unique geopolitical position’’ simply because, it is the only country that maintains deep, long-standing relations with both the US and China. To maintain this delicate balance, Pakistan has assured China that its increasing ties with the US will not negatively impact China’s interests or their bilateral cooperation. This demonstrates Pakistan’s commitment to its existing partnership with China while also pursuing closer relations with Washington. Clearly, Pakistan’s foreign policy is reshaping its propriety contours, prioritizing economic diplomacy, strategic autonomy and regional stability-cum-strategic stability. In this regard, elusive efforts are being made to invigorate ties with the United States, including exploring new trade agreements and encouraging American investment, particularly in sectors like critical minerals. Moreover, Pakistan is profoundly leveraging the role of multilateral organanizations to diversify its partnerships and avoid over reliance on a single bloc. Moreover, in its ardent desire to maintain a balancing act, Pakistan seeks to maintain cooperation with the US on security, economic and regional stability issues. Needless to say, Pak-China’s time tested relations cover mutual cooperation between the two neighbouring states on the issues of security, economic and cultural cooperation while renegotiating the CPEC phase-2 terms with Beijing, Islamabad can better strategize its economic parameters, thereby focusing on transparency, debt sustainability and local job creation to make it feasible. However, critics of balancing act regarding China and the US argue about its inconsistency and how it is often driven by personalities rather than long-term strategic policies. They might also point out that the US-China tensions complicate Pakistan’s efforts to maintain ties with both countries, potentially forcing difficult choices. This balancing act can be perceived as difficult to sustain and potentially detrimental to Pakistan’s integrity and sovereignty. Conversely the supporters hold that during the Cold War period, Pak foreign policy displayed a balancing act. Further, the supporters of the balancing act may analogically cite the UK’s balancing act in its policies towards the US and the EU. In the post-Brexit situation requires navigating economic and political ties with both the US and the EU, demanding strategic foreign policy decisions to safeguard its interests and sovereignty. Both the UK and Pakistani cases highlight the complexities of international relations in a multi-polar world. Though the pro-China analysts argue that while Pakistan’s growing ties with the US are often framed as “transactional,” driven by trade and energy, its relationship with China is more deeply entrenched and strategic, yet seen from Pakistan’s perspective, its engagement with Washington is an economic opportunity rather than a geopolitical realignment. And many Chinese and Pakistani experts believe these efforts are unlikely to fundamentally alter the deep-seated strategic partnership between Beijing and Islamabad. Undeniably, in a growing multipolar world, a balancing act can allow a country to receive security and military aid from one power while maintaining strategic cooperation with the other. Pakistan’s balancing act policy‘s expediencies are profoundly entailed by its economic exigencies. Needless to say, our dependency –on the Bretton wood Institutions like the World Bank, IMF compounded by the growing role of FATF– significantly motivates Islamabad to tilt towards Washington. Further, Pakistan’s close alignment with China is critically perceived in western circles, potentially compromising Islamabad’s strategic interests. Yet substantially, both superpowers have vested interests in Pakistan’s stability, with China focused on protecting its CPEC investments and Washington emphasizing regional security and counter-terrorism cooperation. In this context, Pakistan foreign policy undergoes to bridge the existing geopolitical gap to maintain equilibrium and promote national interests as Islamabad is recalibrating a multi-vector approach to reorient the foreign policy parameters in order to enhance economic growth and maintain regional stability by simultaneously establishing its ties with Washington and Beijing. Notably, Trump’s presidency marked a significant shift in US policy towards Pakistan. Therefore, to maximize the benefits, Pakistan’s foreign policy is reshaping its propriety contours towards the US. This position provides Pakistan with strategic flexibility and economic advantages, thereby leveraging Pakistan’s geostrategic position for its own economic and strategic interests. Pakistan also focuses on maintaining strategic autonomy vis-à-vis decision making process in foreign policy amidst global power dynamics. And also true, as a declared nuclear power state, Pakistan significantly focuses on marinating Pak strategic stability amid the growing threats from its hostile nuclear adversary. As for economic growth, Pakistan aims to discover economic opportunities to promote growth, attract foreign investment and reduce dependence on external debt. Of course, Pakistan’s national interests are supreme and significant. Islamabad aims to diversify its foreign policy and maintain strategic autonomy, rather than engaging in a zero-sum game. Moreover, strategically the global perspective on post-May Pakistan holds a very sound view. While a prominent US foreign policy magazine has notably highlighted Pakistan’s resurging global strategic and diplomatic influence, the foreign policy pragmatists, favouring a balancing act, foster the preposition that hopefully the US-Pakistan relations will maintain their space– even with end of Trump’s second term of historical peace legacy—because of the evolving regional dynamics, mutual strategic interests beyond aid, a pivot toward economic engagement and the growing geopolitical imperatives of a multipolar world. —The writer, based in Pakistan, an independent IR & International Law analyst, also an expert in Conflict and Peace Studies (with special focus on Palestine, Kashmir), is member of European Consortium of Political Research (ECPR), including the Washington Foreign Law Society/American Society of International Law. (rizvipeaceresearcher@gmail.com)
