Pak Russia

As the U.S.-India embrace tightens, former Cold War foes Pakistan and Russia are bolstering ties
with one another. Pakistan was an early Cold War partner of the United States, ultimately
helping to evict the Soviets from Afghanistan in 1989. While India proclaimed a policy of non-
alignment, it was firmly allied with the Soviet Union, which served as its chief defense supplier
for decades. Those strong ties continued following the end of the Cold War into recent years.

While Indias defense arsenal remains overwhelmingly Russian in origin, over the past four
years, Washington has supplanted Moscow to become New Delhis top defense supplier.
Moscow, realizing that its longtime partner is now seeing other people, has lifted an arms
embargo on Islamabad, which is keen on modernizing its military and reducing its dependence
on Washington.

Budding cooperation between Pakistan and Russia goes beyond military sales. The two countries
will also boost economic and energy cooperation. And a strategic partnership may be down the
roadpotentially involving China.

On Opposite Sides of the Cold War

In Pakistan, the standard narrative of Islamabad-Moscow relations begins a purportedly fateful

choice said to have been made in 1949. That year, Pakistans first prime minister, Liaquat Ali
Khan, was invited by Moscow for a state visit, which he promptly accepted. However, upon
receiving an invitation from Washington, Liaquat cancelled the Moscow visit, going to
Washington instead, beginning what would become an on-again, off-again relationship between
Pakistan and the United States.

A senior Pakistani diplomat who served twice in Moscow disputes that account as inaccurate.
Nonetheless, from the 1950s to the end of the Cold War, Pakistan generally remained aligned
with the United States. Pakistan joined the U.S.-led Central Treaty Organization and Southeast
Asia Treaty Organization alliances. It hosted CIA spy flight missions from Peshawar (including
the ill-fated flight of U-2 pilot Gary Powers). Pakistani President Ayub Khan saw his country as
Americas most allied ally in Asia.

In 1965, with the breakout of war between India and Pakistan, the United States imposed arms
embargoes on both countries. Pakistan, spurred by then-Foreign Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto,
sought to reduce its dependence on the United States and flirted with non-alignment. Islamabad
accepted Soviet negotiation of a settlement to the 1965 war with India. In the coming years, the
Soviets also constructed Pakistans largest iron and steel manufacturing complex, known as
Pakistan Steel Mills. Bhuttos bid to diversify ties yielded substantial gains on the China front
a legacy that lasts till today. But the Soviets were firmly devoted to India, especially on defense
and security matters.

In August 1971, as civil war worsened between West and East Pakistan, which were separated
by over a thousand miles of Indian territory, Moscow and New Delhi signed the Indo-Soviet
Treaty of Friendship, which stated that an attack on one treaty member would be seen by the
other as an attack on itself. Months later, India, which had been covertly supporting secessionists
in East Pakistan, formally stepped in, defeating West Pakistan in war and helping create the new
country of Bangladesh.

The Soviet Union and United States supported opposite sides during the 1971 war. Washington
stepped up arms shipments to Islamabad and sent the USS Enterprise to the Bay of Bengal in a
show of support to Pakistan. Meanwhile, the Soviets sent vessels to counter the American naval
presence.