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Old Tuesday, September 02, 2008
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Default pakistan's foreign policy 1947-2004

2001 Onwards: Counter Terrorism
September 11 and Fight Against Terrorism
The terrorist attacks in the U.S. on September 11, 2001 had such far reaching implications for the international system that one can talk of international politics in terms of before and after these terrorist attacks. The United States, other western countries, Russia and China decided to adopt effective measures for countering terrorism by non-state and transnational entities on the highest priority basis. Most other states supported this effort. The UN General Assembly condemned the terrorist attacks and called upon its members to join the global efforts for combating terrorism and not to allow their territories to be used for such activities. The U.S. identified the Al-Qaeda movement of Osama bin Laden based in Afghanistan as the main culprit and declared its intentions to take punitive military measures against the Al-Qaeda movement and the Taliban regime in Afghanistan which allowed Al-Qaeda to operate from Afghanistan. This focused attention on the policies of Pakistan for two reasons. First, Pakistan supported the Taliban regime in the past and its military and intelligence agencies had developed multifaceted interaction with the Taliban. Second, Pakistan shared a long border with Afghanistan and its support was important for any U.S. military operation in Afghanistan. Given the devastation caused by the events of September 11 and sensing the mood of the international community, the government of Pakistan turned its back on the Taliban regime and joined the international community in its counter terrorism drive. Pakistan's decision was also influenced by the UN General Assembly resolutions which called upon its members to support the global efforts for combating terrorism. This was a decision against the backdrop of the international context in September 2001 which helped to protect Pakistan's major strategic interests of territorial security, protection of its nuclear and missile programmes, Kashmir, and revival of the economy. Pakistan opened its airspace to U.S. aircraft for military operations in Afghanistan, and granted permission to the U.S. to use three small airports in Sindh and Baluchistan for logistical, communication and emergency support for U.S. military operations in Afghanistan. The military and intelligence authorities of the two countries shared intelligence on terrorist groups and their activities in Afghanistan and Pakistan. U.S security and intelligence personnel have conducted joint operations in Pakistan with Pakistani security and intelligence agencies against the Al- Qaeda and Taliban elements that secretly entered Pakistan after being dislodged from Afghanistan. The U.S military authorities and the Afghan government impressed on the Pakistani authorities to flush out the Taliban and Al-Qaeda elements who take refuge in Pakistan's tribal areas after engaging in violent activities in Afghanistan. Pakistan dispatched its troops to the tribal areas in June 2003, which periodically launched operations against ex-Afghanistan militants in the tribal areas
. Increased U.S. Support
The U.S. reciprocated by withdrawing three categories of economic sanctions against Pakistan in October-November 2001 and took steps to revive bilateral relations in various fields of mutual interest, including the economy, trade and investment, socio-economic development and military modernization and supply of weapons and military equipment. Direct U.S. assistance to Pakistan has focused on fiscal support, technical and commodity assistance, enhanced trade, financial and technical support for several sectors like health, education, food, democracy promotion, child labor elimination, and counter-narcotics. The U.S. is extending economic and technological assistance to strengthen border security (mainly Pakistan-Afghanistan border), capacity building for dealing with law and order situation and especially terrorism, improvement of communication and road building in the tribal areas and greater record keeping and control of the people leaving or entering the country through different entry-exit points. The U.S. economic assistance during 2002-2003 included US $ 600 million as fiscal support and over US $ 455 million for different development programmes. Furthermore, Pakistan also received payment for the use of Pakistani facilities by American troops. Pakistan also received liberal economic assistance from the World Bank, IMF and Asian Development Bank for various social development sectors, poverty reduction, and capacity building for different institutions of state. In December 2001, the Aid to Pakistan Consortium (the Paris Club) recommended to its members the rescheduling of Pakistan's debts amounting to US $ 12.5 billion, for a period of 38 years, including a grace period of 15 years. The U.S. wrote off and rescheduled its debts. Pakistan received economic assistance, debt relief and trade concessions from Japan and the European Union. These measures eased the debt repayment pressure and gave Pakistan sufficient economic space to pursue policies to put its economic house in order. The U.S. President made new offers of economic assistance during General Pervez Musharraf's visit to the U.S. in the last week of June 2003. He offered a five-year economic assistance package amounting to US $ 3 billion starting in 2004-05. It is equally divided between assistance for economic development and military sales.
The funds allocated for financial year 2003 and 2004 (outside of the promised assistance package) will be used to strengthen security arrangements, road construction and improvement of communication in the tribal areas. Funding would also be provided for setting up education and health facilities in these areas. A Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) was signed as a step toward a free trade agreement. An accord was signed for cooperation in science and technology. There is a widespread concern in Pakistan that, as in the past, the current phase of the reinvigorated Pakistan-U.S relations might not continue for a long time. The U.S. would abandon Pakistan when its strategic interests shift away from in and around Pakistan. The U.S. Secretary of State, Collin Powell attempted to dispel these concerns during his visit to Islamabad on March 18, 2004 by announcing that the U.S. Administration would soon initiate the process for designating Pakistan as a Major Non-NATO Ally. Speaking in Berlin on April 2, he said, “Pakistan is our strongest ally in the fight against terrorism and we want to build up and strengthen its institutions.” The status of a Major Non- NATO Ally is neither a formal security arrangement nor a commitment for supplying weapons. It underscores the importance of the relationship and the long term U.S. commitment for extending diplomatic support, economic and technological assistance, cooperation in other related fields and a sympathetic consideration of the request for weapons supply. (This does not mean that every request for weapons supply will be accepted by the U.S.) The two sides work together for achievement of the shared goals. A number of countries relevant to the U.S. security and economic interests were bestowed this status in the past. The leading countries among these are Egypt, Kuwait, Japan, Philippines, South Korea and New Zealand.. Despite the U.S. decision to assign a priority to its relations with Pakistan, the troubled track record of their relations in the past would continue to cast doubts about the endurance of the current Pakistan-U.S. relations. The anti-U.S. rhetoric of many political parties in Pakistan, especially the Islamic parties known for the linkages with the Taliban and sympathies for Al-Qaeda, reinforces misgivings about the credibility of Pakistan-U.S. relations.
Détente with India
Pakistan's relations with India witnessed ups and downs against the backdrop of the terrorist attacks in the U.S. in September 2001. India supported the U.S. war on terrorism but its leaders were unhappy that the U.S. had cultivated Pakistan for its counter terrorism strategy. The revived Pakistan-U.S. relations perturbed them. They maintained that Pakistan could not be a partner for counter terrorism because of what the Indian leaders described as Pakistan's deep involvement with the Taliban and its support to militant Islamic groups engaged in insurgency Indian administered Kashmir. They also demanded that the U.S. definition of terrorism must include the activities of the Pakistan-based Islamic groups in Kashmir. India insisted that the insurgency in Indian-administered Kashmir was nothing but a product of infiltration of Pakistan based militant Islamic warriors. India blamed Pakistan for the terrorist attacks on India's Parliament on December 13, 2001. It massed its troops on the India-Pakistan border and threatened military action if Pakistan did not contain the activities of the militant Islamic groups operating in Kashmir. From January 1 2002, India suspended all air and railroad traffic between the two countries, denied over-flight rights to Pakistani aircraft and downgraded diplomatic relations. Pakistan responded by mobilizing its troops, and an eye-ball to eye-ball situation developed between the militaries of two countries. The tension reached the breaking point at the end of May 2002, but the diplomatic intervention of the U.S., the U.K., and the European Union averted the war. India's coercive diplomacy of massing its troops on the
Pakistan border in a state of combat readiness did not lead to war mainly because of the threat of escalation of such a war into a nuclear conflict and the advice for restraint by friendly countries. India decided to withdraw its troops in October 2002. Pakistan announced a similar withdrawal of troops from the border area. However, India and Pakistan continued to trade charges and counter charges on a host of issues and Indian leadership insisted that it would not initiate a dialogue with Pakistan until Pakistan stopped “cross border terrorism” in Indian administered Kashmir. Pakistan offered unconditional dialogue on all contentious issue. On April 18, 2003, Indian Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, offered dialogue with Pakistan which was readily accepted by Pakistan. This led to the initiation of steps for normalization of their bilateral relations but no step was taken to initiate a dialogue. In November, Pakistan's Prime Minister, Zafarullah Khan Jamali, offered ceasefire on the Line of Control in Kashmir. India responded positively to this offer and a ceasefire was enforced on November 26. On December 18, Pakistan's President General Pervez Musharraf talked of flexibility in Pakistan's traditional policy on Kashmir by suggesting that Pakistan would be willing to go beyond the stated position and that he expected similar flexibility from India. He said “we are for UN resolutions [on Kashmir]. However, now we have left that aside. If we want to resolve this issue, both sides need to talk to each other with flexibility, coming beyond stated positions, meeting halfway somewhere ... We are prepared to rise to the occasion, India has to be flexible also.” The behind the scene diplomacy and the prompting by friendly countries made it possible for Mr. Vajpayee to visit Islamabad in the first week of January 2004 for participation in the SAARC summit conference. On the last day of the summit, January 6, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Vajpayee issued a joint statement for initiation of bilateral dialogue on all contentious issues, including Kashmir. Pakistan committed that it would not allow its territory to be used for terrorist activities of any kind. This was a major breakthrough in Pakistan-India relations and speeded up the normalization process. The current goodwill between India and Pakistan can sustain if the dialogue between India and Pakistan facilitates the solution of the contentious issues. It can be argued that the current efforts to improve Indo-Pakistan relations are genuine but these efforts can reverse if the dialogue does not move in the direction of problem solving.
Pakistan's Relations with China and Russia
Pakistan's interaction with China expanded rapidly. The latter provided economic assistance and technological know-how for various economic development projects, including the Gawadar deep sea port. It also endorsed Pakistan's policy on combating terrorism and sought Pakistan's cooperation for containing dissident activity in the Xinjiang Muslim majority province. Russian concern pertained to the reported linkages between the dissident elements in Chechnya and the militant Islamic groups based in Pakistan and Afghanistan. The arrest of Chechnya's activist from the Wana area in March 2004 confirmed that Russian concerns were not misplaced. Russia supported Pakistan's efforts to contain militant groups based in the areas adjacent to Afghanistan.
Muslim World and Pakistan
Pakistan maintained cordial interaction with the Muslim states, especially those located in the Gulf region. It supported the Palestinian cause and the two-state formula. The government of Pakistan floated the proposal for recognition of Israel, which had to be put aside due to strong domestic opposition.
Transfer of Nuclear Technology
Two major issues cropped up with reference to Pakistan's nuclear programme. First, much concern was expressed in 2001-2002 about the possibility of some militant Islamic group launching a terrorist attack on Pakistan's nuclear installations or getting hold of fissile or radio active materials, which may be used for making a bomb. The government of Pakistan assured the international community that its nuclear installations had adequate security against a terrorist attack or nuclear theft. Second, it was discovered in 2003 that Pakistan's ace nuclear scientist transferred nuclear material from Pakistan to Iran, Libya and North Korea through a clandestine international network for material gains. The government de-linked itself from these transfers, claiming that the government was not involved in these activities. Pakistan's top leaders assured the international community that Pakistan strictly adhered to non-proliferation of nuclear materials, technical know-how and weapons.
Concluding Observations
The review of Pakistan's foreign policy shows that Pakistan's goals have remained more or less constant, although their scope was often redefined and new dimensions were added to hem. The diplomatic and military strategies to pursue these goals varied over time. The changes in the strategies are understandable because a host of factors influence the foreign policy choices of a country, which include the dynamics of regional and international situation, the availability of human and material resources and the disposition and priorities of the policy makers. As these change over time, foreign policy must also change in its approach to bilateral, regional and global issues and problems. Pakistan began with an independent foreign policy in 1947.However, it tilted towards the West in a period of 7 years due to serious economic and security pressures. It maintained a policy of close interaction in the security and economic fields with the West in general and the U.S. in particular in the mid and late 1950s, the 1980s, and now since September 2001. It pursued independent to non-aligned foreign policy from mid-60s to the end of the 1970s and assigned a great importance to its interaction with the Muslim states and the issues and problems of the developing world. Pakistan is currently an active player in the global efforts for combating religious extremism and terrorism with a policy that extremism and terrorism pose serious threats to global security as well as to Pakistan's internal peace, stability and economic development. Pakistan has made some difficult decisions in pursuing counter terrorism and for ensuring peace and stability in the immediate neighborhood in order to boost its image at the international level, restore international confidence in the ability of the Pakistani state and government to put their socio-economic house in order, and shape up as a democratically oriented, modern and enlightened Muslim polity that does not allow its territory to be used by extremist groups.


http://www.millat.com/democracy/Fore...english_11.pdf
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