Gwadar Port to become a regional trade hub: Ayaz Ahmed

THE national interest of a country often plays the underlying role in determining its relations with other states.

Similarly, due to convergent economic and security objectives, both Pakistan and Russia are steadily coming closer to each other on economic and security fronts.

After Pakistan’s inclusion into the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) as a permanent member, Russia has repeatedly demonstrated its willingness to work with Pakistan so as to effectively eliminate the unfolding terror of Daesh in the region, clamp down on the mushrooming regional drug trade and bring about lasting serenity and stability in war-stricken Afghanistan.

After recovering from the obstructive economic and security impacts of the Cold War, Russia has lately begun expanding its military tentacles in the Middle East and Eastern Europe.

In this regard, Russian incursion of strategically important Crimea and its military assistance to the tottering Assad regime in Syria are two major cases in point.

On the other side, Pakistan is projected to become the regional trade hub due to the Gwadar Port and the construction of multi-billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

After Indian strategic tilt to America and the European Union’s (EU) sanctions on Russia, the Russian government has been engaged in searching new markets for its exports of defence production and energy resources and imports of edible items.

Interestingly, due to American discriminatory nuclear support to India, Pakistan is also immersed in finding new markets for its defence imports. So, this is the opportune time for both countries to increase their bilateral trade so as to reap rich economic dividends.

Historically speaking, Pakistan and Russia signed a much-needed energy deal of $1.7 billion on December 23, 2014 for laying a liquefied natural gas (LNG) pipeline from Karachi to Lahore.

After the EU’s crushing sanctions on the Russian energy market, Moscow has been inclined to conclude more energy accords with Islamabad.

Pakistan can seek out Russian financial assistance and the expertise of Russia’s oil and gas companies such as Rosneft and Gazprom to construct its portion of 785 km of the Iran-Pakistan (IP) gas pipeline. Moreover, Russia has offered Pakistan investment in the energy sector, and the export of 5000 MW electricity through the Kyrgyzstan-Afghanistan route.

Moscow, too, has recurrently offered its cooperation in transnational energy projects such as CASA-1000 and the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline.

In the wake of EU’s sanctions on Russian energy exports – due to the scourge of  the simmering war in Ukraine – Russia has imposed bans on agriculture and textile products from European countries.

Therefore, this has created an increasing scarcity of food items and needed textile goods in Russia. Pakistan can optionally avail this marvellous opportunity by exporting agricultural and textile products to Russia at competitive prices.

Due to a shorter distance, Pakistani farmers would gain maximum profits by trading with Russian dealers. This will also help Pakistan import modern agriculture technology and machinery from Russia and afford it to local farmers so that they can increase the productivity of their farms.

Being a developing country, Pakistan is beset with multiple problems in terms of commencing industrialisation throughout the country. Due to fumbling administration, corruption and nepotism, the only mega industrial unit in the country, the Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM), has been a white elephant and running in losses.

To revive and increase the declining capacity of PSM, Russia’s Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Factory (MMK) has shown interest in helping to expand the capabilities of PSM from one million to three million tonnes of production a year. Apart from this, Pakistan can also invite other Russian companies to assist small and medium size local industries in establishing industrial zones in the country.

What is interesting is to note that Russia is a significant part of China’s One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative. The OBOR is a combination of two routes; the New Silk Road Economic Belt will run westward overland through Central Asia and onward to Europe.

The second route, the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road (MSR), will run south and westward through the sea to Europe with stops in South East Asia, South Asia and Africa. CPEC is just one of the tributaries of the OBOR vision and it is the most important one.

It has been hitherto an unaccomplished Russian dream to have uninterrupted access to the warm waters of the Arabian Sea.

If Pakistan helps actualise this Russian dream through CPEC in  the future, this will help Islamabad to make Gwadar the bustling trade hub of South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. Russian presence in the Arabian Sea will be fruitful in stamping out growing regional drug trade.

But, after increasing its naval presence in the region, Russia will employ its naval fleet in the Arabia Sea to flex its military muscle in the Middle East and South Asia. Therefore, such a move will probably impel America to foment insurgency, militancy and sectarian violence in Balochistan. So, Pakistan should move with sagacity in providing an access to Russia to the Arabian Sea.

Since Russia’s short war with Georgia in 2008, it has been engaged in augmenting its military spending chiefly calculated to counterbalance NATO’s expansion in Eastern Europe. At present, Russia is the third largest military spender after America and China. Owing to Russian efforts, the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) has transformed into an intergovernmental military alliance protecting Russian security interests in the energy-rich Central Asia.

In a nutshell, the Russian successful annexation of strategically important Crimea; its timely military intervention to shore up the struggling Assad regime in Syria and rapid modernization of its defence sector have made Russia a potentially great military power once again.

Russia is somehow anxious about the burgeoning exports of American and European military equipment and technology to India. Such Indian arms imports from the West have deprived Russia of substantial revenue which it had earned by exporting defence equipment o India.

Therefore, Moscow is poised to strengthen its defence ties with Pakistan aimed at selling its arms to Islamabad as well as jointly working to inhibit Daesh from cultivating terror roots in the region. The recent joint military exercises between the two Cold War rivals is clearly indicative of growing Pak-Russia military cooperation in the region.