THE leakage of secret conversation among the top decision-making circles relating to important issues should be a source of serious concern for the relevant authorities and agencies but the disclosure has put a seal on the widely-held perception that the present coalition government is taking crucial decisions strictly in accordance with the core interests of the country. The documents leaked online through the Discord messaging platform and published by the Washington Post confirm that the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar and an unnamed official of the Foreign Office gave their honest input to the Prime Minister on the nature of the country’s ties with the United States and posture of the country vis-à-vis Ukraine war.
It should be a source of satisfaction for people of Pakistan that the incumbent rulers are determined to safeguard the interest of the country on different foreign policy issues despite mounting political challenges at home and the economic and financial crunch that is affecting different aspects of the national life. Credit must be given to the Foreign Office and the experienced Minister of State, who conveyed to the Prime Minister in March this year that the country can “no longer try to maintain a middle ground between China and the United States.” In an internal memo titled “Pakistan’s Difficult Choices,” Khar cautioned that Islamabad should avoid giving the appearance of appeasing the West, and said the instinct to preserve Pakistan’s partnership with the United States would ultimately sacrifice the full benefits of what she deemed the country’s “real strategic” partnership with China. This is what people of Pakistan wanted the successive governments to do based on their over seventy-year bitter experience of the checkered relationship with the United States and sincere commitment of China to help Pakistan not just strengthen its economy but also preserve its sovereignty in the face of various odds. As pointed out by Army Chief General Asim Munir in unequivocal terms that it was Pakistan’s policy not to become part of the big power rivalry, Pakistan must make independent assessment of each and every issue and take policy decisions accordingly. It is not the question of joining American or Chinese camps, but there should be no ambiguity as far as relationship with China is concerned as it always benefited the country and its people. There should be no second thought when it comes to pursuing the historic initiative of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) as well as strengthening civil nuclear cooperation with Beijing as it serves our interest in an otherwise highly biased environment. Another leaked document describes Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s deliberations with a subordinate about an upcoming UN vote on the Ukraine conflict and what the government anticipated would be renewed Western pressure to back a resolution condemning Russia’s invasion. In the realistic advice, the aide advised the Prime Minister that support for the measure would signal a shift in Pakistan’s position following its earlier abstention on a similar resolution, the intelligence document says. Pakistan had the ability to negotiate trade and energy deals with Russia and backing the Western-backed resolution could jeopardize those ties, the aide noted. It was because of this saner advice that Pakistan was able to translate into reality its plans for import of cheaper Russian oil at a time when saving of every single dollar matters for the country. The right decision created the right kind of environment to build on the relationship with the Russian Federation to the mutual advantage. No doubt, for a smaller vulnerable country like Pakistan, there is always a price to pay for trying to toe an independent position on matters of interest to them. There is a legitimate feeling that prolongation of the talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has much to do with Pakistan’s merit-based foreign policy as the lender is adopting dilly-dallying tactics despite fulfilment of all the pledges by the country. Similarly, there seems to be a linkage between this independent policy and frequent provocative statements emanating from Washington which amounted to gross interference in the internal political affairs of the country. Diplomatic observers also point out that the frequency of meetings of US diplomats with the opposition PTI leaders has increased unusually after these important foreign policy moves by the incumbent government. In fact, it is time for all segments of the society to augment the hands of the government and encourage it to continue on the path of self-interest when it comes to making decisions on crucial foreign policy issues.
