The Great Game- Pakistan’s Choice

The USA’s international foreign policy generally and Indian Ocean policy particularly is China and Russia centered. The USA sees China and Russia as the biggest threat to the USA’s interests. Now USA is not thinking in terms of containment of China, as China has already risen; rather they are devising their foreign policy in terms of competing China and Russia in Indian Ocean particularly and internationally generally. The C-PEC is seen by the USA as springboard from where China can reflect its military and naval power well deep into Indian Ocean. That is why USA has made India its strategic partner and has adopted a policy of securing Indian Ocean with the help of India, UK, and Australia.

Therefore we see USA has forged an agreement with India in 2016 for mutual use of military and naval bases. India has adopted policy to have access to port of Chahbahar, to port Dukm of Oman, Assumption Island of Seychelles, Agalega in Mauritius; India also has control over Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Similarly Australia is developing Cocos Islands.  All these facilities along-with already  available facilities like  Diego Garcia, Djibouti, Bahrain add to USA’s, UK’s, and India’s    capability to secure Indian Ocean Sea lanes.   

On the other hand  China is developing naval facilities at Gwadar, Djibouti, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Maldives. Though all these facilities, except Djibouti, are commercial facilities, not military facilities but USA knows very well that commercial power/ influence can be converted into political/ military power. That is why we see a great game in Indian Ocean.

This great game revolves around C-PEC project; this project is the most vibrant tool through which China can reflect its naval/military muscles in Indian Ocean up to Africa and beyond. That is why USA, UK, and India have started concerted efforts to keep Pakistan away from China’s block. The recent move by USA and UK on the complaint of India to keep Pakistan on the watch-list of FATF is in fact a bid from USA block to convey Pakistan a message that Pakistan can be a part of China’s block only at the cost of western investment in Pakistan.

Now it is for Pakistan to decide whether Pakistan wants to be a truly independent and prosperous country through C-PEC by getting out of clutches of USA and western powers OR Pakistan wants to be a subordinate state to USA and India. To Join USA and Indian block would mean Kashmir would never be liberated from Indian slavery. It would also mean Pakistan would be subordinated to India’s economic interests because the west has made huge investments in India. In this way Pakistan would never be an independent country economically and politically. On the other hand, through joining China’s block through C-PEC, Pakistan is having a plenty of opportunities to be an independent country economically; resultantly Pakistan would definitely come out of clutches of western domination. The chances of resolution of Kashmir dispute would be brighter.

In order to counter Indo-USA alliance in Indian Ocean, Pakistan should think about forging an alliance with Turkey, China, Russia and Iran for mutual use of military and naval bases. To make this policy a success, Pakistan has to adopt a policy of removing all vestiges of western influences in Pakistan's policy making; we have to be one sided in this great game because USA and India would not agree lesser than Pakistan aborting C-PEC, or stopping it from full running. Any segment of Pakistan’s policy to compromise C-PEC would keep Pakistan away from benefiting fully from this project.  Therefore we need a political leadership fully committed to C-PEC and fully committed to remove western influences from Pakistan's policy making process. We should also forget about  investments  from countries like USA, UK and France, in Pakistan at least for the time being. These countries would not invest in Pakistan until they would have  failed in disrupting the project of C-PEC.