By: Azhar Azam
*This is one of my opinion pieces (unedited) that first appeared in "The Express Tribune":
https://tribune.com.pk/story/2059613/6-stalemate-afghan-peace-talks/
In his interview with Russian television RT, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan recapped that his country was unfairly blamed for the US failures in Afghanistan. He also slated his predecessors for fighting an American war that caused 70,000 deaths in human casualties and $100 billion on account of economic losses to Pakistan.
Khan’s stance was backed by more than 200 million Pakistanis who believe that they have suffered a lot by fighting the US war on terror in Afghanistan twice – firstly against the Soviet Union in 1980s and secondly in the aftermath of 9/11 attacks.
About three decades before – Washington, with the help of Pakistan, eventually succeeded to pushback Moscow from Kabul and to smash its Sputnik-era foe into pieces. But once it met its national security and foreign policy objectives, it abandoned both Afghanistan and Pakistan. Resultantly, Kabul was elbowed into bloody internal conflicts whereas the menace of terrorism shook Islamabad.
After the US fixed its cold war rival once for all, it throttled its major non-NATO ally, Pakistan, with economic and military sanctions over possession of nuclear explosive devices. That was the time when Pakistan fundamentally realized about the US fitful behavior after reaching its strategic objectives in the region.
Unfortunately, peace and stability in Afghanistan and Pakistan was never on the US foreign policy itinerary. Since the US goals were achieved with the fallout of Soviet Union, the two neighboring countries were worth no more than a stack of the rocks for it.
US laxity and strategic blunder, to leave Afghanistan in chaos and dump Pakistan, allowed Al-Qaeda to strengthen its footprints in Kabul. At the same time, US punitive actions to slap military and economic sanctions rammed Islamabad to contrive a foreign policy that doesn’t invoke Washington as precedence.
In due course, 9/11 terrorist attacks completely transformed the world. US once again needed Pakistan to topple Taliban government in Afghanistan. In order to gain Islamabad support to attack Kabul, Washington threatened to dispatch the South Asian country in Stone Age if it had resisted the US preconditions.
Although Pakistan opted to spine the US-led war on terror in Afghanistan, it had already smelled the susceptible and cranky US behavior to bamboozle Pakistani defense by the recurrent US denials to supply much-needed military equipment.
While Islamabad was always strongly tied with Beijing economically and militarily, in a major foreign policy shift it additionally cozied up to Moscow to encounter its arms deficiencies. A new chapter of Pak-Russo ties started with the arrival of Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Frakov in 2017 while Moscow also supported Islamabad’s campaign against local Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) terrorist activities in Pakistan.
The bilateral relations furthered after Russia revamped its regional strategy and President Vladimir Putin publicly endorsed Pakistan bid to join Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), calling Islamabad an important ally in South Asia and in the Muslim world. It was probably the turning point that laid the foundation of economic and military ties between Pakistan and Russia.
From then onwards, the bilateral relations powered by military ties between the two sides continued to burgeon. In the past few years, Pakistan has significantly leaned towards Russia over insistent US response about blocking the deliver military equipment to Pakistan and its abrupt curve to India that bids to stem China’s growing influence in region.
As Pakistan and China shared the deepest and closest relations, Islamabad’s tilt towards Moscow thwarted Washington that foresaw a formidable China-Pakistan-Russia trilateral strategic alliance in making. While the US found a new strategic partner in the form of India in the region, Islamabad snubbed US concerns over its economic and strategic links with Moscow.
On July 2, the Commander in Chief of Russian Ground Forces General Oleg Salyukov called upon Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa at General Head Quarters (GHQ), Rawalpindi.
Two military heads deliberated matters related to enhanced security cooperation and measures to further expand joint military ties between the two armies, Pakistan’s Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a press release.
The extensive strategic discussions quickly transpired in a substantial outcome as the special forces of two countries will be holding joint military drills in October this year. The combine army exercise dubbed as “Friendship 2019” will be conducted for a third consecutive year in a row.
Russia has a consistent stance of “political and diplomatic approach” for enduring peace in Afghanistan. For 20 years, Moscow has been urging the brawling sides to follow the path of dialogue. The Kremlin also believes that the US “is unduly coming back” to its prior confrontational policy with Taliban.
As Pakistan and Russia look to bury the bitter past, they alongside China are heading towards forming a new power equation and a deeper strategic partnership for the 21st century. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) could give them a common platform to architect and sheen the ostensible trilateral strategic alliance.
While in June a Taliban delegation headed by Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar visited China to promote peace and reconciliation in Afghanistan and Afghan government also maintains warm relations with China, Beijing has a critical role to play.
Taliban’s visit to Beijing wasn’t abrupt. In April, Beijing joined Washington and Moscow in calling for Taliban to return to talks after a communication breakdown. So the growing Chinese role places China in a pivotal position to ensure future stability in Afghanistan.
Whenever the talks between the US and Taliban resume, China will have a central role because no one amongst the all world’s powers can match China’s clout of sustaining close relations with the governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Beijing is ready to even extend its cooperation towards the US on Afghanistan as “they share a common interest in a stable Afghanistan.”
The US pragmatically has the least or indeed no threats to its national security from Afghanistan or the Afghan Taliban but as it bulls to keep a check on its strategic rivals, China and Russia, it ranks the battle-scarred country very high in its foreign policy objectives.
For the US and the Pentagon, Russia is an “authoritarian actor” with which China has partnered to mitigate US pressure tactics while in wake of Western sanctions on Russia; Beijing has been increasing its investments in Moscow to aid Russian economy.
Over the past 12 months, US has been again desperately looking at Pakistan to strike a deal with Afghan Taliban. Although the Afghan peace talks are dead now but since the unvaryingly deteriorating situation in Afghanistan has gravely impeded the economic growth and sustainable peace in Pakistan, it has made deep-hearted efforts that Afghanistan remains a peaceful and stable territory and Taliban and Kabul administration engage in a comprehensive intra-Afghan dialogue.
However, while facilitating the US-Taliban talks and intra-Afghan dialogue, Pakistan has to be very mindful of the proceedings, underscoring the US unpredictable attitude about ditching Islamabad repetitively after gaining its national and strategic objectives.
As lately Trump administration and Pentagon has decided to round up Taliban once more, Pakistan should profoundly engage Iran, China and Russia since the endurable peace in the four countries is tightly knotted with stability in Afghanistan.
While Beijing and Moscow have also urged the sides to resume the peace talks, the four regional countries should wheel-up their efforts to outwit any consequential damage to Afghan peace process, which could eventually destabilize the entire region.
*This is one of my opinion pieces (unedited) that first appeared in "The Express Tribune":
https://tribune.com.pk/story/2059613/6-stalemate-afghan-peace-talks/
In his interview with Russian television RT, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan recapped that his country was unfairly blamed for the US failures in Afghanistan. He also slated his predecessors for fighting an American war that caused 70,000 deaths in human casualties and $100 billion on account of economic losses to Pakistan.
Khan’s stance was backed by more than 200 million Pakistanis who believe that they have suffered a lot by fighting the US war on terror in Afghanistan twice – firstly against the Soviet Union in 1980s and secondly in the aftermath of 9/11 attacks.
About three decades before – Washington, with the help of Pakistan, eventually succeeded to pushback Moscow from Kabul and to smash its Sputnik-era foe into pieces. But once it met its national security and foreign policy objectives, it abandoned both Afghanistan and Pakistan. Resultantly, Kabul was elbowed into bloody internal conflicts whereas the menace of terrorism shook Islamabad.
After the US fixed its cold war rival once for all, it throttled its major non-NATO ally, Pakistan, with economic and military sanctions over possession of nuclear explosive devices. That was the time when Pakistan fundamentally realized about the US fitful behavior after reaching its strategic objectives in the region.
Unfortunately, peace and stability in Afghanistan and Pakistan was never on the US foreign policy itinerary. Since the US goals were achieved with the fallout of Soviet Union, the two neighboring countries were worth no more than a stack of the rocks for it.
US laxity and strategic blunder, to leave Afghanistan in chaos and dump Pakistan, allowed Al-Qaeda to strengthen its footprints in Kabul. At the same time, US punitive actions to slap military and economic sanctions rammed Islamabad to contrive a foreign policy that doesn’t invoke Washington as precedence.
In due course, 9/11 terrorist attacks completely transformed the world. US once again needed Pakistan to topple Taliban government in Afghanistan. In order to gain Islamabad support to attack Kabul, Washington threatened to dispatch the South Asian country in Stone Age if it had resisted the US preconditions.
Although Pakistan opted to spine the US-led war on terror in Afghanistan, it had already smelled the susceptible and cranky US behavior to bamboozle Pakistani defense by the recurrent US denials to supply much-needed military equipment.
While Islamabad was always strongly tied with Beijing economically and militarily, in a major foreign policy shift it additionally cozied up to Moscow to encounter its arms deficiencies. A new chapter of Pak-Russo ties started with the arrival of Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Frakov in 2017 while Moscow also supported Islamabad’s campaign against local Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) terrorist activities in Pakistan.
The bilateral relations furthered after Russia revamped its regional strategy and President Vladimir Putin publicly endorsed Pakistan bid to join Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), calling Islamabad an important ally in South Asia and in the Muslim world. It was probably the turning point that laid the foundation of economic and military ties between Pakistan and Russia.
From then onwards, the bilateral relations powered by military ties between the two sides continued to burgeon. In the past few years, Pakistan has significantly leaned towards Russia over insistent US response about blocking the deliver military equipment to Pakistan and its abrupt curve to India that bids to stem China’s growing influence in region.
As Pakistan and China shared the deepest and closest relations, Islamabad’s tilt towards Moscow thwarted Washington that foresaw a formidable China-Pakistan-Russia trilateral strategic alliance in making. While the US found a new strategic partner in the form of India in the region, Islamabad snubbed US concerns over its economic and strategic links with Moscow.
On July 2, the Commander in Chief of Russian Ground Forces General Oleg Salyukov called upon Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa at General Head Quarters (GHQ), Rawalpindi.
Two military heads deliberated matters related to enhanced security cooperation and measures to further expand joint military ties between the two armies, Pakistan’s Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a press release.
The extensive strategic discussions quickly transpired in a substantial outcome as the special forces of two countries will be holding joint military drills in October this year. The combine army exercise dubbed as “Friendship 2019” will be conducted for a third consecutive year in a row.
Russia has a consistent stance of “political and diplomatic approach” for enduring peace in Afghanistan. For 20 years, Moscow has been urging the brawling sides to follow the path of dialogue. The Kremlin also believes that the US “is unduly coming back” to its prior confrontational policy with Taliban.
As Pakistan and Russia look to bury the bitter past, they alongside China are heading towards forming a new power equation and a deeper strategic partnership for the 21st century. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) could give them a common platform to architect and sheen the ostensible trilateral strategic alliance.
While in June a Taliban delegation headed by Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar visited China to promote peace and reconciliation in Afghanistan and Afghan government also maintains warm relations with China, Beijing has a critical role to play.
Taliban’s visit to Beijing wasn’t abrupt. In April, Beijing joined Washington and Moscow in calling for Taliban to return to talks after a communication breakdown. So the growing Chinese role places China in a pivotal position to ensure future stability in Afghanistan.
Whenever the talks between the US and Taliban resume, China will have a central role because no one amongst the all world’s powers can match China’s clout of sustaining close relations with the governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Beijing is ready to even extend its cooperation towards the US on Afghanistan as “they share a common interest in a stable Afghanistan.”
The US pragmatically has the least or indeed no threats to its national security from Afghanistan or the Afghan Taliban but as it bulls to keep a check on its strategic rivals, China and Russia, it ranks the battle-scarred country very high in its foreign policy objectives.
For the US and the Pentagon, Russia is an “authoritarian actor” with which China has partnered to mitigate US pressure tactics while in wake of Western sanctions on Russia; Beijing has been increasing its investments in Moscow to aid Russian economy.
Over the past 12 months, US has been again desperately looking at Pakistan to strike a deal with Afghan Taliban. Although the Afghan peace talks are dead now but since the unvaryingly deteriorating situation in Afghanistan has gravely impeded the economic growth and sustainable peace in Pakistan, it has made deep-hearted efforts that Afghanistan remains a peaceful and stable territory and Taliban and Kabul administration engage in a comprehensive intra-Afghan dialogue.
However, while facilitating the US-Taliban talks and intra-Afghan dialogue, Pakistan has to be very mindful of the proceedings, underscoring the US unpredictable attitude about ditching Islamabad repetitively after gaining its national and strategic objectives.
As lately Trump administration and Pentagon has decided to round up Taliban once more, Pakistan should profoundly engage Iran, China and Russia since the endurable peace in the four countries is tightly knotted with stability in Afghanistan.
While Beijing and Moscow have also urged the sides to resume the peace talks, the four regional countries should wheel-up their efforts to outwit any consequential damage to Afghan peace process, which could eventually destabilize the entire region.