Russia joined the battle for Pakistan
For the Russian Federation, Pakistan is interesting as a tool to contain the United States in the region.
This opinion, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent , was expressed by Andrei Serenko, director of the analytical center of the Russian Society of Political Scientists, assessing the first visit of the head of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sergey Lavrov, to Islamabad in nine years.
“Today, a battle for Pakistan is unfolding in the region, with three key participants - the United States, China and Russia - pursuing their own interests. For Beijing, Pakistan is becoming the most important resource of influence in South Asia and the Middle East. The US sees Islamabad as Afghanistan's future operator and hopes to wrest it away from Beijing. For Russia, Pakistan is interesting as a tool to contain the United States in the region, as well as as a resource of influence on the Taliban and other jihadist groups that potentially threaten the security of Central Asia, the expert said in an interview with Kommersant.
At the same time, he predicts difficulties in Russian-Pakistani relations.
“Pakistan will be interested in Russia as one of its important partners, but Moscow will not have exclusive cooperation with Islamabad, since for Pakistan this would mean an unacceptable lowering of the degree of partnership with Washington. Taking this into account, Moscow will have to carefully calculate the pros and cons of the current strategy, taking into account the possibility of ruining relations with India,” Serenko added.
Moreover, as PolitNavigator reported, Kyiv intends to deepen military-technical cooperation with Pakistan.
According to Lavrov, the flagship Russian-Pakistani energy project will be the North-South gas pipeline (Pakistan Stream), with a length of about 1,1 thousand kilometers and a capacity of 12,4 billion cubic meters. The Russian Foreign Minister also promised to strengthen Pakistan’s security forces through joint exercises. In addition, cooperation was announced between Rosatom and the Pakistan Nuclear Energy Commission.
Russia has joined the battle for Pakistan.