When Joe Biden assumed the US presidency in January, many in Pakistan hoped for a bilateral reset. Three months on, there is no such rapprochement in sight as the new administration in Washington delivers perceived snubs rather than engaged olive branches to Islamabad. Read Here | Asia Times
When Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov landed this month in Pakistan, marking Moscow’s first high-level ministerial visit to Islamabad in nearly a decade, the diplomat’s presence was laden with geopolitical intrigue. While Lavrov’s overt mission was to court Pakistan’s support for Russia’s new bid to promote a political settlement in war-torn Afghanistan, his unspoken agenda […]
In recent weeks, senior Pakistani officials, including the country’s powerful army chief, have signalled or outright said that, from now on, their country’s foreign policy will emphasise geoeconomics. This is a welcome rhetorical shift. Read Here | Foreign Policy
For 24 hours last week Pakistan gave everyone cause for hope. On Wednesday, Pakistan’s Finance Minister Hammad Azhar disclosed that the government was lifting the ban on import of sugar and cotton from India–something that was widely seen as a signal of a further thaw in the otherwise frosty relations between the two neighbouring countries, […]
Pakistan has unveiled a new “geo-economic vision” that offers to “bury the past” with neighbouring rival India if it reciprocates with a “relaxation” on the two sides’ long-running dispute over Kashmir. Pakistan’s olive branch announcement, made on March 18, comes after last month’s bilateral resolution to revive an 18-year-old ceasefire agreement to end Kashmir’s Line […]
The Biden administration is looking to end America’s “endless war” in Afghanistan while shifting its attention to containing China, a geopolitical shift that will put Pakistan on the horns of a strategic dilemma. The extent to which China is on Biden’s geo-strategic radar was apparent in the recent first-ever Quad summit-level meeting, which sought to […]
After last year’s much-publicised spat between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia — culminating with Riyadh’s demand for early repayment of $3 billion in loans meant to shore up Islamabad’s foreign exchange reserves — tensions between the two countries have since cooled. Pakistan and Saudi Arabia appear to be in the midst of a reset of relations. Read Here | […]
The end of the Cold War had already reduced Pakistan’s importance in America’s strategic calculations. On top of that, there is now growing strategic divergence between Pakistan and the US because of the development of the Indo-US partnership as an essential element of the US policy of containment of China, on the one hand, and […]
Pakistan’s failure to tackle terror financing and money laundering has cost the nation an estimated US$38 billion since 2008, new independent research reveals. The losses have mounted while the country was on an international finance watchdog’s “grey” list. The Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF) sets standards and promotes legal, regulatory and operational measures to fight […]
There’s a reason: for all the braggadocio, India is stuck in Occupied Kashmir. It had estimated that it could control the situation after its illegal annexation but that hasn’t happened. The use of force has only served to further alienate people. Even politicians that have played ball with New Delhi for more than seven decades […]
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