On March 18, 2021, General Bajwa emphatically advocated for Pakistan’s role as a regional connectivity hub at a security conference in Islamabad. His protracted speech was specifically focused on the idea of Pakistan acting as a hub for regional economic, trade and commercial integration and connectivity. Unlike other military men of Pakistan, he didn’t try to exclude India from his plans for regional connectivity. The former Chief told the audience at the Islamabad conference that he was all for landlocked Afghanistan exporting its goods to India through land transit facilities offered by Pakistan. In fact, he presented a plan, which included the idea of resolution of the Kashmir dispute and the resulting military tensions between Pakistan and India, and possibility of movement towards starting a new era of regional integration and connectivity.
Pakistan’s Army chief presenting a plan for regional integration and connectivity—a plan which didn’t exclude India? What was going on?
Most clearly this was not an isolated move and certainly not one of those showcased hoax plans, which the Pakistani Foreign Office often floats to embarrass or expose Indian intransigence. Since 2018, General Bajwa had been persistently offering talks to India. It appears that General Bajwa’s ideas were at least not unpopular in the military. Only a few years ago, senior military official posted in Balochistan, where India’s Research and Analysis Wing is accused of fomenting trouble, offered India an invite to join the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor along with other regional countries.
Within three weeks of General Bajwa’s speech, the government of Pakistan facilitated a senior US diplomat’s visit to Gwadar Port—Pakistan’s flagship project to enhance regional connectivity. Pakistani media didn’t report the visit of the US diplomat, but perhaps we can glean some connection between General Bajwa’s speech and the Gwadar visit by the US diplomat, “we also see hope in the form of the incoming US administration, which can transform the traditional contestation into a gainful economic win-win for the world in general and the region, in particular, South Asia can be the starting point for regional cooperation,” General Bajwa said at the conclusion of his March 2021 speech.
Pakistan’s military establishment was familiar with the history of efforts to make Pakistan a regional connectivity hub because the efforts started decades ago. Successive Pakistani governments signed agreements with Asian Development Bank to start work on a Central Asia Regional Economic Program—a multilateral agreement to finance connectivity between the Central Asian states and Indian Ocean ports as two of the 11 land routes under this program passed through Pakistani territory. An agreement was inked with the USAID to initiate Pakistan’s Regional Economic Integration Activity program—another program for road construction to enhance regional connectivity.
General Bajwa demonstrated an acute awareness of this history and the role friendly countries other than China were playing in the efforts to make Pakistan a connectivity hub when he said in his speech, “let me also emphasize that while CPEC remains central to our vision, only viewing Pakistan through the CPEC prism is also misleading.” Seen in this context, the visit of a US diplomat to Gwardar in April 2021 absolutely made sense. General Bajwa was making efforts to dilute Chinese marking on the efforts to project Pakistan as a connectivity hub and to make these efforts appease the Americans. Only a few months later, Pakistan’s Ambassador to Washington, Ali Jahangir Siddique authored a report for Washington based think tank Atlantic Council, which is considered close to the US security establishment, in which he presented the efforts of the Pakistan state machinery to develop physical and digital infrastructure in the country to prepare Pakistan for a future role as regional connectivity hub.
In his March 2021 speech, General Bajwa referred to the Kashmir as a problem which is stalling economic progress and regional integration. His focus, again, was on presenting Pakistan as a regional connectivity hub. On the other hand, in the latest speech by General Asim Munir, the new Chief completely skipped the connectivity project and quite conventionally engaged in traditional but provocative, in the present circumstances, rhetoric on Kashmir. It is understandable that General Asim’s decision to skip the connectivity project may simply mean that he didn’t consider it suitable to bring up this issue in his speech at the passing out parade of the Military Academy.
There is also a possibility that General Asim didn’t see it fit to speak about an issue which relates partly with the country's foreign policy and partly with infrastructural development in the country—both of which are policy matters that come under the domain of the civil government. But it is at the same time also a pity that a crucial activity like a connectivity project—that can ensure economic progress and development in Pakistan—will lose a powerful backer like the Army Chief’s office.
Alternatively, there is also a possibility that the new military leadership doesn’t consider the idea of Pakistan acting as a regional connectivity hub viable in the prevailing geostrategic environment. There are other signs that the present military leadership will be less flexible on relations with India. Previous military leaders clearly realized Pakistan’s role as a land route connecting not only energy rich Central Asia with energy hungry South Asia, but also saw Pakistani territory as a link between the two emerging markets of China and India.
Seven decades ago, when the Cold War was heating up in Europe and across the world, American military strategists saw Pakistani territory as an ideal location for bases for stationing their bombers to bomb Soviet Central Asia. The American CIA wanted its listening posts established near Peshawar. On many occasions during the Cold War and later, and during the War on Terror, Pakistani military leaders fulfilled both these wishes of the American military and security establishment. Later, Pakistan’s perceived strategic location and its importance for world powers—Pakistani territory connected Central Asia with South Asia and Pakistan was situated on the tip of a long belt of Muslim lands stretching all the way to Morocco in Northern Africa—became a catchphrase in the everyday talk of military officials.
There came a time when Pakistan's strategic location became the country's biggest security nightmare when in the wake of 9/11, a possibility emerged that Pakistani territory would become a battleground between Arab militants hiding in Afghanistan and American forces, which were preparing to attack Afghanistan. But Pakistani military officials didn’t stop their mantra of “Pakistan’s important strategic location.”
The world has changed dramatically: the emerging trend in the world is connectivity, rather connectivity is the destination of future human civilization. General Bajwa was the first military man to take cognizance of this reality. I am sure a whole bureaucratic setup must have contributed in preparing General Bajwa’s speech. But nevertheless, it was his speech, and he delivered it. The military dimension of our strategic location has given us bankruptcy and economic misery. The economic aspect of our strategic location as a regional connectivity hub has the potential to change the economic reality for ordinary Pakistanis as well as for the state of Pakistan.
Geopolitical tussles and military conflicts, which in part have been instigated by geographical location, have given us economic underdevelopment, institutional imbalance, lawlessness and a large begging bowl. Let’s try connectivity for once.
Pakistan’s Army chief presenting a plan for regional integration and connectivity—a plan which didn’t exclude India? What was going on?
Most clearly this was not an isolated move and certainly not one of those showcased hoax plans, which the Pakistani Foreign Office often floats to embarrass or expose Indian intransigence. Since 2018, General Bajwa had been persistently offering talks to India. It appears that General Bajwa’s ideas were at least not unpopular in the military. Only a few years ago, senior military official posted in Balochistan, where India’s Research and Analysis Wing is accused of fomenting trouble, offered India an invite to join the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor along with other regional countries.
Within three weeks of General Bajwa’s speech, the government of Pakistan facilitated a senior US diplomat’s visit to Gwadar Port—Pakistan’s flagship project to enhance regional connectivity. Pakistani media didn’t report the visit of the US diplomat, but perhaps we can glean some connection between General Bajwa’s speech and the Gwadar visit by the US diplomat, “we also see hope in the form of the incoming US administration, which can transform the traditional contestation into a gainful economic win-win for the world in general and the region, in particular, South Asia can be the starting point for regional cooperation,” General Bajwa said at the conclusion of his March 2021 speech.
Pakistan’s military establishment was familiar with the history of efforts to make Pakistan a regional connectivity hub because the efforts started decades ago. Successive Pakistani governments signed agreements with Asian Development Bank to start work on a Central Asia Regional Economic Program—a multilateral agreement to finance connectivity between the Central Asian states and Indian Ocean ports as two of the 11 land routes under this program passed through Pakistani territory. An agreement was inked with the USAID to initiate Pakistan’s Regional Economic Integration Activity program—another program for road construction to enhance regional connectivity.
General Bajwa demonstrated an acute awareness of this history and the role friendly countries other than China were playing in the efforts to make Pakistan a connectivity hub when he said in his speech, “let me also emphasize that while CPEC remains central to our vision, only viewing Pakistan through the CPEC prism is also misleading.” Seen in this context, the visit of a US diplomat to Gwardar in April 2021 absolutely made sense. General Bajwa was making efforts to dilute Chinese marking on the efforts to project Pakistan as a connectivity hub and to make these efforts appease the Americans. Only a few months later, Pakistan’s Ambassador to Washington, Ali Jahangir Siddique authored a report for Washington based think tank Atlantic Council, which is considered close to the US security establishment, in which he presented the efforts of the Pakistan state machinery to develop physical and digital infrastructure in the country to prepare Pakistan for a future role as regional connectivity hub.
In his March 2021 speech, General Bajwa referred to the Kashmir as a problem which is stalling economic progress and regional integration. His focus, again, was on presenting Pakistan as a regional connectivity hub. On the other hand, in the latest speech by General Asim Munir, the new Chief completely skipped the connectivity project and quite conventionally engaged in traditional but provocative, in the present circumstances, rhetoric on Kashmir. It is understandable that General Asim’s decision to skip the connectivity project may simply mean that he didn’t consider it suitable to bring up this issue in his speech at the passing out parade of the Military Academy.
There is also a possibility that General Asim didn’t see it fit to speak about an issue which relates partly with the country's foreign policy and partly with infrastructural development in the country—both of which are policy matters that come under the domain of the civil government. But it is at the same time also a pity that a crucial activity like a connectivity project—that can ensure economic progress and development in Pakistan—will lose a powerful backer like the Army Chief’s office.
Alternatively, there is also a possibility that the new military leadership doesn’t consider the idea of Pakistan acting as a regional connectivity hub viable in the prevailing geostrategic environment. There are other signs that the present military leadership will be less flexible on relations with India. Previous military leaders clearly realized Pakistan’s role as a land route connecting not only energy rich Central Asia with energy hungry South Asia, but also saw Pakistani territory as a link between the two emerging markets of China and India.
Seven decades ago, when the Cold War was heating up in Europe and across the world, American military strategists saw Pakistani territory as an ideal location for bases for stationing their bombers to bomb Soviet Central Asia. The American CIA wanted its listening posts established near Peshawar. On many occasions during the Cold War and later, and during the War on Terror, Pakistani military leaders fulfilled both these wishes of the American military and security establishment. Later, Pakistan’s perceived strategic location and its importance for world powers—Pakistani territory connected Central Asia with South Asia and Pakistan was situated on the tip of a long belt of Muslim lands stretching all the way to Morocco in Northern Africa—became a catchphrase in the everyday talk of military officials.
There came a time when Pakistan's strategic location became the country's biggest security nightmare when in the wake of 9/11, a possibility emerged that Pakistani territory would become a battleground between Arab militants hiding in Afghanistan and American forces, which were preparing to attack Afghanistan. But Pakistani military officials didn’t stop their mantra of “Pakistan’s important strategic location.”
The world has changed dramatically: the emerging trend in the world is connectivity, rather connectivity is the destination of future human civilization. General Bajwa was the first military man to take cognizance of this reality. I am sure a whole bureaucratic setup must have contributed in preparing General Bajwa’s speech. But nevertheless, it was his speech, and he delivered it. The military dimension of our strategic location has given us bankruptcy and economic misery. The economic aspect of our strategic location as a regional connectivity hub has the potential to change the economic reality for ordinary Pakistanis as well as for the state of Pakistan.
Geopolitical tussles and military conflicts, which in part have been instigated by geographical location, have given us economic underdevelopment, institutional imbalance, lawlessness and a large begging bowl. Let’s try connectivity for once.