Regional and neighbourhood political fences must also be mended
A ‘pariah state’ and ‘isolation’ are the most dreaded terms in the lexicon of political and military leaders. For statesmen, isolation means burning the midnight oil to forge new alliances and business agreements, while for the military planners it raises the spectre of a multi-front war. An already beleaguered Pakistan, engaged in a deadly and costly struggle against terrorists, was also darkly threatened with isolation by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on many public occasions, no doubt under the Indian’s peculiar ‘good neighbor’ policy, which has brought it in confrontation with most of its bullied smaller neighbours.
But what has been the harvest of all its geopolitical fiddling? The Russia military, despite all blandishments, participated in the Druzhba (Friendship) 2016 exercise in September 2016 in Cherat and G-B, while talks are ongoing for purchase of modern weaponry. The Pakistan Navy’s multi-national exercise, AMAN 2017, held in February, attracted 37 countries, with the warships and aircraft of Australia, China, Indonesia, Turkey, Sri Lanka, the UK, USA, Japan and Russia participating. The chief of the Turkish Air Force and the chief of staff, United States Air Force also visited Pakistan in March and August 2016 respectively. The chief of the South African National Defence Force attended the Pakistan Day parade on March 23 in Islamabad. Last week the UK Royal Air Force Air Marshal was the chief guest at the cadet’s passing out parade in Risalpur, and even took a spin in an F16. Pakistan Army’s Team Spirit 2017 exercise being presently conducted at Jhelum in extremely challenging terrorism scenarios and terrain includes soldiers from China, Jordan, Malaysia, Maldives, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Turkey, Thailand and the UK.
The Army Chief is also on an official three day visit to London, where he is expected to meet with influential political and military leaders, and address think-tanks and Pakistani expatriates. Needless to say, comparative, sincere, calculated and painstaking efforts are needed on the political side to mend fences in the region, and particularly with our immediate neighbours, rather than building new Trump-like fences.
