CHIEF of Army Staff Gen Raheel Sharif’s trip to Saudi Arabia and meetings with the very apex of the leadership of that country has yielded a set of official details that emphasised the need for continuing security and counterterrorism cooperation between the two countries.

After the April low — when the Pakistani parliament historically turned down a request to participate in the Saudi-led war in Yemen — the bilateral relationship appears to be stabilising and that is something to be welcomed.

Know more: Saudi king meets Gen Raheel, vows to help eliminate terrorism

Despite differences over the years, the Pak-Saudi relationship is economically and diplomatically important for Pakistan. There is simply no case for Pakistan to isolate itself from the Middle Eastern powerhouse that has been a staunch supporter of Pakistan internationally over the decades.

Furthermore, in the arena of counterterrorism cooperation, the Pak-Saudi relationship has been a strong one and continues to have the potential for expansion.

The more than a decade of cooperation in the fight against Al Qaeda has yielded a strong partnership and shown that experience can be put to use to fight new transnational threats that can undermine both countries.

As indicated in the ISPR statement, “choking the flow of funds” to terrorists and extremists must remain a priority.

Ultimately, what makes countries safe is the overall combination of policies they pursue. Both Saudi Arabia and Pakistan have suffered because of internal policy contradictions over the decades.

For Saudi Arabia, the determination to crush any Islamist challenge to the monarchy was long matched by a zeal to export an ideology that helped breed extremism in other parts of the Muslim world. For Pakistan, the resolve to combat terrorism that hurts Pakistan was for long overshadowed by support for religiously inspired militancy and extremism that targeted neighbouring countries.

The cost of those dual policies has become all too clear — and to some extent led to the elimination of those contradictions in both countries. There are, however, still too many contradictions in the policies that Saudi Arabia pursues.

The caustic exchanges this week between the Saudi and Iranian foreign ministers in the international meeting to discuss Syria have been widely reported — underscoring that Iran and Saudi Arabia remain further apart than ever and that their relationship could yet determine if the Middle East can be stabilised.

If the goal is indeed the eradication of militancy and extremism and to stabilise a deeply troubled region, Saudi Arabia — and many other countries, including Pakistan — would have to change a great number of their policies.

Published in Dawn, November 6th, 2015

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