#Pakiatan #SaudiArabia #Islamabad #Riyadh #China
Pakistan – Ties with Saudi Arabia are on a historically low ebb. Saudi Arabia announced a $6.2 billion US loan package for cash-strapped Pakistan in November 2018.
Pakistan – Ties with Saudi Arabia are on a historically low ebb. Saudi Arabia announced a $6.2 billion US loan package for cash-strapped Pakistan in November 2018.
The plan included a total of $3 billion in loans, and a $3.2 billion oil credit facility. But then, Riyad demanded the return of the $3 billion loan and refused to sell oil on deferred payment to Islamabad.
Pakistan, in response, immediately returned to the Saudis $1 billion, signaling a distance from Riyadh. Apparently, the differences between the two countries emerged after Saudi Arabia sided with India in recent tensions over Kashmir.
But this is not the only irritant in Saudi-Pakistan relations. In fact, what has raised eyebrows in Riyadh is Pakistan’s tilt towards Turkey and Malaysia, which have emerged as new leaders in the Muslim world and strongly support Pakistan’s stand on Kashmir,
while condemning India’s treatment of the Kashmiri people. Enter China, which has risen to the support of cash-strapped Pakistan in a tug-of-war with Saudi Arabia.
With strategic focus shifting from Saudi Arabia to Turkey and Malaysia, China appears to be pushing Pakistan to lead the Muslim world.
Relations between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan apparently weakened when Saudi Arabia turned down Pakistan 's invitation to convene a special meeting of the Council of foregin Ministers Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to address Kashmir.
The statement made on television this month by Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi further dented bilateral relations when he warned that Pakistan would be forced to take it in its own hands.
The deterioration in relations had already begun in December of last year, when Pakistan pulled out of an international summit of Muslim leaders held in Malaysia under Saudi pressure.
The summit was hosted in Kuala Lumpur by Malaysia's then-Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, and attended by dozens of world leaders, including Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, to discuss current issues in the Muslim world.
Erdoğan, however, disclosed that Khan - who had been a prime mover behind the summit - withdrew from the meeting after Saudi Arabia issued economic threats to Pakistan.
Erdoğan claimed that Saudi Arabia had threatened to send back four million Pakistanis working in Saudi Arabia and also to withdraw $ 3 billion from Pakistan's central bank. Riyad had reservations over the Malaysian summit as it was not organized under the OIC,
which could divide the Muslim Ummah. Although economically weak, Pakistan has been a strong military ally of Saudi Arabia.
The country’s former army chief General Raheel Sharif still serves as Commander of the 39-country, Saudi-led Islamic Military Counter Terrorism Coalition (IMCTC). Pakistan is also the only nuclear-armed state in the Muslim world. Saudi friendship, however,
came with a price for Pakistan. Riyad played a key role in the growth of the radical and Jihadist mindset by funding hard-line madrassas (religious schools) in Pakistan.
Financial support estimated at $ 100 million a year from Arab countries continued to strengthen an extremist recruitment network in Pakistan. Pakistan paid heavily in its war on extremism, economically and in human lives.
The Pakistani Taliban, or Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), killed thousands of Pakistani citizens, including security personnel, in hundreds of terrorist attacks across the country.
The country ultimately launched a full-fledged military operation in 2015 in its north-western tribal belt along the Afghanistan border. Now, however, Pakistan seems to have decided not to be strong-armed by the Saudis over its relations with Turkey, Iran and Malaysia.
Islamabad’s move to return the Saudi loan looks to have been motivated by its strategic partner and all-weather friend - China.
The “Malaysian summit” indeed raised concerns in Riyadh that the meeting of Muslim leaders could lead to the creation of a new bloc that would rival the existing 57-member state OIC.
And with the OIC failing to resolve important issues and disputes in the Muslim world, the new bloc actually threatens the Saudi’s leadership status in the Muslim world.
On the annexation of disputed Kashmir territory by India last year, the OIC’s response was essentially “Oh, I see!”.
Frustrated by the fecklessness of the organization and its effective takeover by Arab leaders, many Muslim countries, including Pakistan, feel the need for a stronger and more active OIC to protect the wider Muslim world 's interests, something similar to NATO.
China seems to be an influential force behind certain alliances that are changing. Beijing is nearing completion of a huge 25-year strategic cooperation agreement with Tehran, involving $400 billion in Chinese investment in Iran.
As the current leadership of the OIC has enjoyed strong relations with the United States, there is an opening for China to make inroads in the Muslim world and expand its influence through this new bloc that is emerging.
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