In the heat of Subcontinent’s Atomic summers of 1998, then US President Bill Clinton repeatedly contacted Saudi Arabia to alter its diplomatic stance on Pakistan.
“Our relations with Pakistan are very special in nature.”
These were the historic words of then Crown Prince of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, H.E. (late) Prince Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz.
In its 72 year of diplomatic history, one country that always stood by Pakistan, without any ifs and buts, in it’s ‘thicks n thins’ is Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This alone is sufficient enough to assess the dimension and magnitude of special brotherly relations between the two Muslim nations.
This was not the first time that Pakistan saw Saudi Arabia standing shoulder to shoulder in its odd times. Since its creation, Pakistan has constantly been experiencing aggression from its eastern border with India.
That includes two major wars between Pakistan and India in 1965 and 1971. Importantly, in the aftermath of both the wars, Pakistan was ticketed with the sanctions from the western powers. These sanctions revolved around economic as well as defence embargo.
Saudi Arabia not only stood firm diplomatically but also extended direly needed economic aid to Pakistan. Both the countries stayed in the same camp during the Cold War. Not to be ignored is the fact that though Saudi Arabia maintained bilateral relations with India, but never compromised its pro-Pakistan position on the issue of Kashmir.
In the diplomatic world of bilateral & multilateralism, Saudi Arabia is uniquely placed and is enormously important. A leading oil producing economy and with ever increasing religious tourism, Saudi Arabia is experiencing rapid positive socio-economic changes under the Vision 2030 of Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Suleman.
The coming decade indeed would see a multidimensional economy of Saudi Arabia. This would include an industrial boom that would have its impact beyond borders and would indeed be an excellent opportunity for the special allies of Saudi Arabia like Pakistan to benefit from. Especially, Pakistan being a country with nearly 65% of its population below 35 years of age, would see itself contributing and benefiting from the Vision 2030 of the Crown Prince for Saudi Arabia.
Since Prime Minister Imran Khan has taken office, the diplomatic stance of Pakistan has become more vibrant. Imran Khan openly advocates his multilateralism and believes in having good bilateral relations with all the neighbouring countries including Iran and India. One can never doubt his intentions when he displays his wishes for having a multipolar diplomacy of Pakistan towards the Muslim World to have a United Ummah.
In the pursuit, Khan used his top diplomatic, armed and intelligence offices to initiate a dialogue between the concerned camps. Last year, they visited Tehran and Riyadh with mission and are still trying to ease Middle East tensions. But, I peresonaly believe that the Kuala-Lumpur episode has dinted Pakistan’s efforts, as it created a divide amongst Muslim countries.
I am in favour of multilateral activities of such nature amongst Muslim countries but only if they are executed with a good intent. If Pakistan had attended the Summit, it could have easily been derived that Pakistan has changed its approach by losing an all-season friend and brother like Saudi Arabia. Here, Kuala-Lumpur Summit gave a bad taste by trying to portray itself as an alternate to the largest Muslim organisation of the OIC.
I believe either the major participants should have only been neutral Malaysia, Turkey and Pakistan with an intent to work for Muslim unity through this platform or the summit should not have taken place at all.
Importantly, knowing the magnitude of special relations between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, it indeed is goofy enough to expect Pakistan to attend a summit of Muslim countries without the presence of Saudi Arabia.
So by not attending the recently held Kuala-Lumpur summit, Pakistan has restated aloud to the Muslim World that it shall never expect any multilateralism at the expense of special relations with Saudi Arabia.
Although, Khan’s decision not to attend the recently held Kuala-Lumpur Summit was criticised and mocked throughout the world but I believe it was in the best interests of Pakistan. Looking at the current fragile economic state of Pakistan, Saudi Arabia remains the largest foreign contributor in its economy. Millions of Pakistanis are living in Saudi Arabia for work and business and the households running on Saudi foreign remittances are equally in millions.
In the aftermath of killing of Iranian General, Qassem Soleimani, Middle East once again became a boiling pot. Sensing the urgency, Foreign Minister of Pakistan, once again switched on his Air Force Jet to go to Tehran and Riyadh.
Pakistan’s initiative, surely has helped to ease the situation. Once again it was highlighted that Pakistan does not want another conflict in the region. It shows that Pakistan still is best placed to bring Iran on the dialogue table.
It is important to mention that General Qassem Soleimani was known for creating, financing and facilitating pro-Iran militant groups throughout the region. He was running a network of proxy warlords. Importantly, he openly criticised Pakistan Army and was a staunch rival of General Raheel Sharif, who is currently heading the Islamic Military Counter Terrorism Coalition.
In his visit to Pakistan, almost a year ago, Saudi Crown Prince not only issued a loan of $6 billion but also signed an investment of worth $10 billion oil refinery in Gwadar to cater Pakistan’s economic and energy challenges. Not to be forgotten is the ongoing three year Saudi oil supply of $9.9 billion on deferred payments to Pakistan. Saudi Arabia pledged to invest in energy, tourism and mineral exploration sectors.
The Crown Prince further assured that the next investment in Pakistan would be even bigger. In the same visit, while addressing the concerns raised by Premier Khan related to the issues of overseas Pakistanis working in Saudi Arabia, Crown Prince famously said “consider me Pakistan’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia”.
From here on, Pakistan must further deepen its already special relations with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Importantly, since its international economic initiatives in its coastal city of Gwadar, Pakistan must see itself touching the Gulf through a different perspective. In this globalised world of global economies, the regional blocs play a key role.
As the advent of Gwadar port has naturally turned Pakistan into a door to or an extension of the Gulf, Pakistan should well be eyeing upon the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). Either Pakistan should quest for a special membership of the GCC or at least it must seek Free Trade Agreement (FTA) on special terms and conditions.
For both these options, “Special” relations between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia can play pivotal role as the latter is the key player of not only the GCC but the Gulf. Surely, Pakistan can increase its existing trade volumes with the GCC countries through either becoming a special member state or by having an FTA status.
Pakistan being an agricultural country, can increase its agro-production with help of the GCC direct investment in the agricultural research and by introduction of production enhancing technologies. This would indeed help increase Pakistan’s agricultural production that would result in increase in the export volumes of Pakistan to the GCC countries to counter its economic challenges forever.
Here, I must congratulate Premier Khan for firmly facing the audacious criticism by the international media. Fact is that people of Pakistan see their relations with people of Saudi Arabia through a different prism.
In Pakistan, Premier Khan’s decision is being hailed as a statement of renewal of brotherhood between people of both countries. If Saudi Arabia can stand shoulder to shoulder with Pakistan in the rainy days, then why on earth Pakistan should show its back. Pakistan must never and will never compromise the Pak-Saudi Relations.
As they say ‘a friend in need is a friend indeed’, in the case of relations between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, it can simply be said that ‘a friend in need is a brother indeed’. Surely this brotherly bond between both the countries makes it very unique, where if one Crown Prince terms the relations “special in nature” then the other considers himself “Pakistan’s ambassador”.
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