WRITING on foreign policy is not for the faint-hearted. But the task can be made easier if correspondents and columnists have access to good sources, men and women who can inform, guide and comment with insight and intelligence.

Reporting on foreign policy is about evaluating and comparing competing narratives. To get the right balance, journalists need sparring partners they can respect, people who keep them on their toes through appropriate — and if needed — stinging remarks and observations.

Having written on international relations for almost three decades, I can safely say that my database of sources and contacts is fairly good.

Asian, European and American policymakers vie for space with business leaders, scholars, authors and an invaluable number of non-governmental experts.

Mostly, like other journalists, I keep my contacts confidential. After all, good, reliable sources don’t talk openly in public. Press conferences are for news reporters. For columnists, confidentiality is the key condition for getting the truth. It’s the “off-the-record” comments that are the most revealing and insightful.

But I’m going to break the cardinal rule and confess: for the last many years, one senior Pakistani diplomat has been pivotal in helping me understand the complexities of Pakistani — and Asian — foreign policy: his name is Khalid Mahmood and he died suddenly and tragically last month.

Pakistani diplomats come in all shapes and sizes. There are those who engage with journalists and others who keep them at arm’s length, possibly seeing them as competition because their articles quite literally tell a different story from the ones the embassy is sending home.

Here in Brussels, I have seen Pakistani diplomats come and go. Some have stood out because of their brilliance, others because of their kindness and courtesy. Some have just bided their time until the next assignment. With a few exceptions, mostly they are forgettable.

Khalid was quite simply different. He was a unique mix of diplomat and scholar, a patient and respectful man who knew how to win over even the most sceptical and suspicious journalist with his thorough grasp of the subject, his out-of-the-box knowledge and his patience.

Over the years, Khalid made sure I was informed of the latest developments in Pakistan’s foreign connections, relations with Washington and Brussels by spending hours briefing me face to face or through fascinating long-distance telephone conversations.

As I became increasingly involved in Asia-Europe relations, transatlantic squabbles and the challenges facing Africa, a phone call from Khalid was enough to make sure I also paid some attention to Pakistan.

“So what are they saying about Pakistan these days in Europe?” he asked me in his regular phone calls. When I told him — as I often did — that Pakistan wasn’t top of the EU agenda, that the focus was more on Afghanistan, India and China, he would give me three good reasons why Europe should stay engaged with Islamabad.

If I had a paper to write or a lecture to give on Pakistan, Khalid was my first port of call, my go-to man to obtain the stark, unadulterated truth about where the country was headed. He was no romantic but he believed in the resilience of the country and the people. “We’ll get there…we’re learning,” he told me when I harangued him about Pakistan’s policies.

I often told him he was too upbeat about the country. He told me I was too negative. I can still remember our laughter as we hung up our phones, agreeing to disagree.

We spoke about relations with India of course but Khalid’s questions to me were mostly about my visits to China and Beijing’s contacts with America and Europe.

Europe continued to fascinate him — in all its complexities and multiple facets. He was probably one of the few Pakistani diplomats who understood the complicated relationship between the EU and national capitals.

No story I wrote escaped his notice. He was one of my best sources — and one of my toughest critics. I wrote my columns for Dawn, knowing that Khalid would be reading them. He was often fulsome in his praise but also unrelenting in his criticism. Quite simply, Khalid kept me on my toes.

Writing on the power struggle between nations, the rise of Asia and the slow but steady decline in America’s dominance and Europe’s desperate search to remain relevant in the 21st century are issues that continue to intrigue and fascinate me.

I tell students, there’s nothing more interesting than international relations, the rise and fall of nations, changes in the nature of power and the emergence of new power blocs and new threats. Khalid was a rare breed: a Pakistani diplomat who understood the challenges of the 21st century and worried about Pakistan’s place in it.

—The writer is Dawn’s correspondent in Brussels.

Published in Dawn, May 17th, 2014