Mission to China

Mission to China
By Zahid U Kramet

If there is one thing about President General (retired) Pervez Musharraf, it is that he is dogged. Despite facing flagrant opposition to his presidential credentials, Musharraf continues to assert himself as ‘the man’ to set matters straight for Pakistan.

This has worth.

His recent mission to China would indicate as much. Facing hurdles in the passage of smoother relations with the US and its Nato allies in Afghanistan of more recent time, Musharraf looked eastwards to salvage both his and Pakistan’s fallen image.

Pakistan’s relations with China are long-term. Not as long a term as with the US – the country’s principal benefactor from 1954 – but since 1963, when Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto pressed for closer ties with Chairman Mao’s China.

Let down by the US during Pakistan’s 1965 war with India, Sino-Pakistan ties strengthened to the point of China becoming Pakistan’s main weapons supplier. China benefitted by gaining access through the Pakistan corridor to the oil-resplendent Middle East.

This ‘strategic partnership’ was fortified by Bhutto’s leftist leanings as Red China impacted on the developing world, while China’s territorial differences with India cemented the Sino-Pakistan bond to the point of their becoming ‘now and forever’ friends.

In 1969 the Karakoram Highway, China’s land passage to the Indian Ocean was begun, and this became a functioning reality linking China’s eastern Xinjiang province to Pakistan and connecting to the latter country’s Grand Trunk (GT) Road which leads to the seaport of Karachi.

But not for once did Pakistan consider breaking its equally strong bonds with the US.

Barely a week into his 1969 presidency, Richard Nixon moved to end communist China’s isolation, with his National Security Advisor, Henry Kissinger, laying the groundwork by way of backchannel diplomacy, courtesy Islamabad.

In July 1971, Kissinger visited Beijing to tie up loose ends and by February 1972 all was in place for President Nixon’s landmark China visit, which witnessed the signing of the historic Shanghai Communiqué acknowledging the ‘one China’ paradigm.

The accord enabled the US to temporarily shelve questions concerning the status of the Republic of China in Taiwan and led the US to establishing full diplomatic and trade relations with the Peoples Republic of China in 1979.

Pertinently, “the week that changed the world” was followed by the eruption of the Watergate scandal, which ended in the first ever resignation by a US president, and downplayed Pakistan’s important input in helping resolve the decades old US-China stand-off.

Still, Pakistan did not lose out.

Beginning with defence and diplomatic collaboration during their nearly half a century of association, China has invested in a number of diverse projects with the accumulated turnover reportedly having reached over $ 6 billion in 2005.

Similarly, the trade volume between the two counties meantime was expected to up from around $ 5 billion in 2006 to an expected $ 8 billion in 2008, albeit the balance was heavily tilted in China’s favour, with Pakistan’s trade deficit having soared to $ 2.6 billion in 2005.

But China did make due note of this and Zhang Ligun, a researcher with the China Institute of International Studies writing in the Beijing Review June 8, 2006, recommended “to deal with the trade imbalance, China should offer economic policy support to Pakistan”.

The author also appreciated Pakistan’s support on the matter of China becoming an observer of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), while welcoming Pakistan as an observer of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).

With energy the area of primary concern to both countries and Mr Ligun duly drew attention to the fact that the respective governments had signed a framework agreement on cooperation in this field as “a new highlight in the (China-Pakistan) economic and trade relationship”.

Inevitably, President Musharraf, during the course of his April 2008 visit, focused on “lobbying Beijing to build gas pipelines linking Pakistan with China” and restated the offer of Pakistan functioning as energy and trade corridor for the whole region from Gwadar.

Musharraf reportedly also said that “if the SCO can do something…it should come forward and cooperate towards the security of Afghanistan”. But he emphasised, “If the SCO can come along, then we would need to ensure there is no confrontation with Nato.”

This effectively spelled out Pakistan’s policy perspectives about which China showed no cause for concern, which came as no surprise for China has broadly adhered to the laudable principle of non-intervention with its neighbours, especially in the case of Pakistan.

No wonder then that President Musharraf and the delegation he headed showed no hesitation in suggesting that the nascent Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) gas pipeline could be extended to China, even as he proposed a rail and fibre optic linkage along the same route between the two long-standing allies.

For its part, China had unhesitatingly signed a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in 2006, which is expected to boost bilateral trade to $ 15 billion over five years and more Memorandums of Understanding (MoU) were signed during the Pakistan delegation’s April 2008 visits for oil and gas exploration.

In addition, China assured maximum support in financing ongoing infrastructural development programmes, with China Development Bank Governor expressing serious interest in backing the Bhasha-Diamer dam as well as the proposed oil, gas and rail links from Gwadar.

In regard to defence the PPP report stated: “China expressed its full support for Pakistan’s efforts to preserve its sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity and expressed appreciation for Pakistan’s important role in promoting peace…and its contributions to counter terrorism”

All of which compelled the elated Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, one of the two dignitaries accompanying President Musharraf on his China visit to comment, “China is a reliable and trustworthy friend and has proved (this in standing) by Pakistan over the years.”

Would that Pakistan’s friends in the West were as judicious in their analysis of this county’s testing situation.

— Courtesy: Spearhead Research