THIS refers to the news ‘Russian troops arrive for drill with Pakistan military’ (Nov 06). The blossoming friendship between the two countries indicates how far they have come in the last couple of decades. One doesn’t hold military drills with one’s enemies and that in itself is enough to make us count Russia among Pakistan’s friends.

Back in the day, Pakistan was playing the role of a frontline state on the opposite side. The two were engaged in a vicious 10-year war, albeit an indirect one, after the erstwhile Soviet Union invaded and occupied Afghanistan in 1980.

The misadventure ended in grief for the Soviets and the country disintegrated. The United States disappeared and Pakistan was left alone to handle the mess that it had landed itself in.

In the late 1980s, no-one could have envisioned that the Soviet Union’s successor state, Russia, and Pakistan would become close friends. But they are.

Likewise, at the time, India was a long-time member of the former Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) from its independence till 1989, and never sought closer ties with the US during its association with NAM. In this period Pakistan had close cordial relations with the US from the late 1940s onward.

Today, India has joined hands with the United States and the two countries have formed an alliance in an effort to contain and counter the rising power of China in global affairs; political, military and economic.

One fears that sooner rather than later this alliance could in fact become a Pacific Nato, thereby forcing Pakistan to reconfigure and reassess its foreign policy strategy and direction.

Wonders never cease in international relations. They never do.

Abbas R. Siddiqi
Lahore

Published in Dawn, November 17th, 2020