A well-informed source in Islamabad says that the Russian FM Lavrov’s visit after 9 years is not only the bilateral chitchat on trade and mutual interest, but his visit means something beyond this. Last month, the quad alliance of US, India, Japan and Australia was on top of agenda. The Soviet leadership finds this alarming on its isolation and also considers this a way to contain the Chinese role in this region. And now it is also expected that Pakistan will not attend the 16th April conference in Istanbul, just to send a message to Americans that they are not pleased that they give too much importance to India.
On the other side, Afghanistan was also on FM’s agenda. Though the Americans announced that they are going to withdraw their troops from May 1, but sources tell that they’re not going to completely evacuate Kabul lest Iranian and Chinese will jump into the region. So, the Afghan issue is still haunting the region. After a hiatus of nine years, Russian FM’s visit is also significant because since the past decade Russians had withdrawn themselves from the politics of this region. Naturally the reason for this was the collapse of the Soviet Communist State and humiliating defeat in Afghanistan. So, Russians are now very much taking keen interest in participation in regional politics, they also want to balance the relations between Pakistan and India. They even proposed the revival of Pakistan Steel Mills which was the foundation of Pakistan Industry. They also discussed other trade Possibilities, joint military exercises also.
Last but least, as per my observation on Pak-India relations I shared with you yesterday, that Pindi-wallahs snubbed Khan that the dialogue should be limited to only ceasefire on LoC and talk about Dam and water. In near future, they are not going to further any closeness to Delhi, ie, no trade, no track two diplomacy. Even on secretary level, there shall be no other talks.
