Pakistan’s perspective of the US-China struggle has been revealed in leaked documents.
According to State Minister Khar, prioritizing Beijing above the United States harms real strategic’ ties with China.
ISLAMABAD:
The US intelligence community has declassified its findings, revealing Pakistani authorities’ internal judgment of how to handle the increasing struggle between the US and China.
The Washington Post on Sunday reported that the documents, which were part of a trove of US secrets leaked online through the Discord messaging platform, provided a rare glimpse into the private calculations of key emerging powers like India, Brazil, Pakistan, and Egypt as they attempt to straddle allegiances in an era when America is no longer the world’s unchallenged superpower.
What made these papers crucial was the fact that the United States had obtained access to a classified memo written by Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar.
According to the papers that were leaked, Khar advocated for Pakistan to avoid playing “middle ground” between China and the United States.
There is “no longer any attempt to maintain a middle ground between China and the United States,” Khar reportedly told The Washington Post in March.
Former Pakistani foreign minister Khar, in a memo titled “Pakistan’s Difficult Choices,” warned Islamabad against giving the impression of appeasing the West and warned that the desire to maintain ties with the United States would cost the country its “real strategic” alliance with China.
How the United States obtained a copy of Khar’s message is not specified in the undated intelligence dossier.
An American National Guardsman, age 21, has been arrested and charged with leaking classified information online.
Sources told The Express Tribune that Khar made her evaluation amid internal deliberations about whether Pakistan should join the US democracy summit in March, despite the fact that no formal response was issued from Pakistan.
Over 100 world leaders, including Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, were invited to the second democracy summit hosted by President Joe Biden. When Imran Khan was prime minister and the first summit was scheduled for 2021, Islamabad decided to skip it.
There was talk that Pakistan would send a representative to the democracy summit with the recent change in government. Pakistan, however, did not attend due to Chinese pressure, just as it did in 2021. Beijing criticized Biden’s move because it welcomed Taiwan and the United States.
It was reported that Khar had provided her opinion on the matter. Pakistan did its best to keep the peace even though it didn’t send representatives to the conference. Whether or if Pakistan is willing to officially take a stand showing it has joined the China camp is unclear, despite Khar’s opinion.
General Syed Asim Munir, Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff (COAS), recently spoke about how the country’s goal is to avoid getting involved in competitions between major countries. In the past week, General Munir has been in China.
This pointed to a continued public stance by Pakistan against bloc politics.
Another document, dated February 17, details discussions between Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and an aide about an approaching United Nations vote on the Ukraine conflict and the renewed Western pressure the government expected to approve a resolution condemning Russia’s incursion.
According to the intelligence report, Sharif’s advisor told him that Pakistan’s attitude would change if it supported the legislation after it had abstained on a previous resolution. The adviser pointed out that supporting the Western-backed resolution could threaten Pakistan’s capacity to negotiate trade and energy accords with Russia.
Pakistan was one of 32 countries who didn’t cast a vote at the UN General Assembly on February 23.
