For most of its history, Pakistan has kept its strategic eggs largely in the American basket. From the Baghdad Pact-CENTO and SEATO during the Cold War to its designation as a major non-NATO ally in the War on Terror, Islamabad invariably aligned itself with Washington’s regional objectives.

Yet, while Pakistan has long looked westward for strategic patronage, it lives next door to an emerging superpower. Geography has made China a permanent fact of Pakistan’s existence in a way that no distant ally can ever be. Pakistan may periodically recalibrate its relations with Washington, but it cannot readjust the geography that binds it to China.

China’s support for Pakistan has never been an act of charity. It is rooted in hard national interests — geography, strategy and the emergence of a broader strategic arc, linking the Arabian Sea, the Middle East and Central Asia. Those interests have not diminished with time. If anything, they have become more compelling.

China’s support for Pakistan has never been an act of charity. It is rooted in hard national interests — geography, strategy and the emergence of a broader strategic arc, linking the Arabian Sea, the Middle East and Central Asia. Those interests have not diminished with time. If anything, they have become more compelling.

Ironically, the complication is that China today stands at the very centre of America’s global anxieties. It is Washington’s principal strategic competitor – economically, technologically, militarily and ideologically. Relations between the two are characterised by competition across virtually every major domain of international affairs.

It is this contradiction that gives rise to a recurring question in Pakistan: can China continue to regard Pakistan as a dependable strategic partner when Islamabad has historically maintained such close ties with the United States?

Given this reality and the persistent perception that external pressures have complicated or slowed down projects associated with the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), many Pakistanis........

© Daily Times