Russia is proving that it is nobody’s fool. And as both it and Washington go back to the future and redraw the Cold War battleground — Pakistan looks all set to benefit. Provided, that is, we are smarter this time around.
For Moscow has come out of the shadows and is adopting a pro-active role in our ’hood. It has this week appointed an honorary consul in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa which borders Afghanistan; reportedly uneasy about the rise of ISIS on the other side. And as an additional move towards this end, Russia and Pakistan have announced (also this week) the setting up of a joint commission on military cooperation to counter this regional threat. This comes hot on the heels of China unveiling plans to establish military bases in both Afghanistan and here.
In other words, the Great Game is about to become interesting once more. After all, on one side is the US who accuses both Moscow and Tehran of actively assisting the Afghan Taliban; and on the other are the Russians who, for their part, contend that Washington has failed to take seriously the ISIS menace.
But most significant is the not so unsubtle shift in narrative that we are seeing. Meaning that what Moscow essentially is saying is this: that the US is harbouring terrorists. For the latter firstly encouraged the NATO war machine to engage in its first non-European mission across our western border and then, after decimating that society, it went off and launched a war of aggression in Iraq. And then once having done the job of unleashing chaos there it turned its attention to Libya and Syria only to ‘return’ to Afghanistan all the while boo-hooing that the country is still in turmoil. That groups such as ISIS that are fleeing NATO bombs in the Middle East consider the Afghan quagmire a firm bet — indicates that terror outfits themselves do not take seriously the US mission next door. Or put another way, they establish their very own safe-havens under American occupation. Thus if we were ever to be so bold, we could accuse Washington of providing cold shelter to those who would overthrow the democratic set-up over here and grab our nukes at the first chance they had. At least this is the fear Washington has been peddling ever since it went into Afghanistan more than a decade-and-a-half ago.
Thus Russian support for Pakistan is a positive development; after all, we are already buying weaponry from it. Moreover, this will likely not give Saudi Arabia cause for protest given that its bilateral ties with Moscow are on the up; with Riyadh even buying arms from the latter. Nevertheless, Islamabad will still have to tread carefully. For in no way do we want to somehow be dragged into the Syrian war. Just as we must be equally cautious and avoid being seen to favour anti-terror cooperation with Russia over fully signing up for the Islamic Military Alliance; the body that was set up to tackle the terrorist threat in the Middle East. But all seems to have gone rather quiet on that front which is itself odd considering that the region is currently in flames due to US misadventures there.
Yet the one takeaway for Washington should be that the so-called Bajwa Doctrine is in full swing. Meaning that the days of scurrying to please the Americans is indeed well and truly over. Because while money talks — there are now plenty of others who are more than willing to wop their wads on the counter and outbid the US.
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