No to bloc politics

T he reiteration from the Foreign Office that Pakistan is not part of bloc politics is quite reassuring. The categorical submission was needed as Islamabad was being painted as going the Beijing way, and rising in the region as an anti-Washington bully. It is wise decision-making that Pakistan has shunned polarisation and alignment politics on the international stage, and is pursuing a policy that is relevant to its national interests.

As rightly stated by the spokesperson, Pakistan has an ‘all-weather’ strategic partnership with China, and likewise has been an ‘allied-ally’ of the US in the region. With the world sliding towards anarchism and realignment on the premise of realpolitik, Islamabad unnecessarily is a victim of a sense of otherness. This stigma is in need of being removed so that bilateralism is cleansed from a sense of hegemony. Pakistan’s foreign policy has been closely aligned with regional realities, and conscious of security concerns. This is why it became part and parcel of US military alliances in the Middle East and Southwest Asia, and fought the impugned war on terrorism. With eastern and western borders nursing animosity with Pakistan, all it needed was a security cushion which had been forthcoming for decades from Washington. But as far as China was concerned, its relationship is irresistible, as Pakistan’s geostrategic location makes it indispensable to have a special relationship with the economic power house.

Last but not least, Beijing’s developmental and connectivity paradigm has placed Pakistan in a unique position, and its commonality with China is a foregone conclusion. With no desire to play one against another, Pakistan has been a facilitator between China and the US, and this role is in need of being appreciated, and rewarded. Unlike India, it is not harping across the region and beyond by entering into illogical alliances for the sake of browbeating China. If China is in need of Pakistan’s geopolitical muscles for realising its BRI project, so is the case of the US for furthering its security umbrella in Southwest Asia.