THERE is a particular kind of diplomacy that only nations with skin in the game can practice, the kind born not of ambition, but of necessity. Watch the last few months closely and you will see Pakistan practicing exactly that kind of diplomacy in the Middle East, with China standing quietly but firmly at its shoulder. When the war between the United States, Israel and Iran erupted at the end of February 2026, most capitals reacted the way capitals usually do with statements of concern, calls for restraint and not much else. Pakistan did something different. It picked up the phone.

That is not surprising if you understand geography and history the way Islamabad does. Pakistan shares a 900-kilometre border with Iran. It has decades-old, if occasionally strained, ties with Saudi Arabia and the wider Gulf. It sits at the crossroads of the Islamic world, a nuclear-armed Muslim-majority state that no serious mediator in this conflict could afford to ignore. So, when missiles started flying and the Strait of Hormuz, the artery through which a fifth of the world’s oil moves, came under threat, Pakistan did not wait to be invited to the table. It built one.

Within weeks, Pakistan was engaging Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt through its own channels, while simultaneously reaching out to Beijing. On March 31, in a meeting between Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Ishaq Dar and his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, the two sides unveiled a five-point initiative for restoring peace and stability in the Gulf and the wider Middle........

© Pakistan Observer