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Pakistan Attempts Balance Ties With China, US

Ayaz Gul

   ISLAMABAD - Pakistan's government has long said it is trying to
   maintain good relations with both China and the United States, despite
   rising tensions between Beijing and Washington. But Prime Minister
   Imran Khan was blunt in one of his recent public statements about where
   the two relationships are heading.

   "Pakistan's future is tied to China. We should be clear on this that
   our country's [economic]development has now been intertwined with
   China," Khan said in a wide-ranging interview aired by a local news
   channel last week.

   "We are fortunate that we have a friend that stood by us through thick
   and thin. None of our other friends have stood by us like China
   politically supported and defended us on all fronts," Khan told Dunya
   TV.

   Since the start of the war in Afghanistan, the United States has been
   the largest source of foreign aid for Islamabad, providing billions of
   dollars in military and civilian assistance as part of the broader
   effort to defeat the Afghan Taliban. But from the beginning, there was
   also tension over whether Pakistan was helping or hurting the war
   effort.

   Two things have changed in recent years: Washington signed a peace
   agreement with the Taliban in February, signaling an end to U.S.
   involvement in the conflict. At the same time, China dramatically
   expanded its outreach and investment in Pakistan.

   Now many are asking what those two developments mean for Islamabad's
   future foreign relations.

   Chinese funds, Pakistani development

   China has historically maintained close defense and security relations
   with Pakistan, and in recent years has encouraged joint manufacturing
   of various military-related hardware, including the JF-17 multipurpose
   combat aircraft.

   Over the past five years, China expanded its economic outreach with
   Pakistan as the country became an anchor in its global Belt and Road
   Initiative (BRI), part of an ambitious plan to forge new trade routes
   through Central and South Asia.

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