Jaishankar’s ‘Dirty Diplomacy’ against Pakistan – Threats to Pakistan’s Blue-Economy needs immediate response

Pakistan and China both have fairly modern oceangoing survey vessels in their inventory, which can all be used for maximum potential. Pakistan’s national and coastal economy is immensely sea-tied- which has a 1048 km long coastline to benefit its economy if its potential is explored in the right direction.

• With a long history of planning, harboring, and financing proxy cross-border terrorist activities, targeting instability in Pakistan, Jaishankar’s recent visit recalibrated the older plan of India to re-acquire CharBahar port and create economic instability and terrorist activities in the region
• Right from his early career as a diplomat in Indian MoEA, and later being secretary of foreign affairs of India in the Modi govt from May 2019, Jaishankar has exposed and proven an utter filthy mind-hatching conspiracies against Pakistan.
• The recent last-minute unscheduled visit of Jaishankar on 14^th and 15^th Jan 2024 to Iran and subsequent cross-border shelling on 16^th Jan 2024 towards Pakistan from the Iranian side, is a clear example that needs a detailed deeper investigation wherein ‘a trail remains where a snake slithers.

With the recent activities of India, many now feel that diplomacy is a dirty word and the profession puts dirty maneuvering above ethics. By calling mythological Hindu gods “diplomats” Jaishankar presumes himself clever enough but extremely stupid to expose his dirty tactics to the world. Diplomacy should not be a dirty word, but few prove it otherwise with their character and conduct.

Right from his early career as a diplomat in Indian MoEA, and later being secretary of foreign affairs of India in the Modi govt from May 2019, Jaishankar has exposed and proven an utter filthy mind-hatching conspiracies against Pakistan.  With a trail of evidence left and submitted by Pakistan on numerous occasions to the international community including the United Nations, India is still adamant about following the path of a rogue terrorist state. Planning, financing, and executing terrorist activities in neighboring countries including assassinations, India has recently increased the ambit to the whole world.   With assassinations of the Indian Sikh diaspora in Canada, America, Scandinavia, and Europe, the wave has far intensified towards Pakistan than before.The recent last-minute unscheduled visit of Jaishankar on 14^th and 15^th Jan 2024 to Iran and subsequent cross-border shelling on 16^th Jan 2024 towards Pakistan from the Iranian side, is a clear example that needs a detailed deeper investigation wherein ‘a trail remains where a snake slithers’.

With a long history of planning, harboring, and financing proxy cross-border terrorist activities, targeting instability in Pakistan, Jaishankar’s recent visit recalibrated the older plan of India to re-acquire CharBahar port and create economic instability and terrorist activities in the region. It is strange to digest the continued interest of India in a port within direct proximity of strategic Gwadar Port of Pakistan. Gwadar has significant importance for Pakistan and its close ally China. With the change in polar power balance and China’s strategic alliance with Pakistan, Pak-China collaboration finds a tremendous opportunity in Gwadar and through it access to the maritime highways of the Indian Ocean.

On September 19, 1973, a month after Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was elected as Prime Minister on August 12, 1973, he sought US help to construct a new port at Gwadar Balochistan. President Nixon warmly greeted PM Zulfiqar Alli Bhutto on his visit to the White House and declared, ‘that the independence and integrity of Pakistan is a cornerstone of American foreign policy’ and promised PM Bhutto to look to the proposal carefully, but refrained from committing anything with Pakistan on the pretext of his National Security Council.

The NSC briefing papers later indicated no “great interest” of the US in developing a facility at Gwadar for Pakistan, under the pretext that it would stir up the Soviets, the Indians, and the Afghans without greatly contributing to the U.S. interests. In a later proposal of the Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai who again strongly recommended the Pakistani proposal to Kissinger during his visit to China in November 1973, the US administration again took no interest and simply brushed it under the carpet.

Six decades later, now the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is part of China’s massive ‘Belt & Road Initiative’ (BRI) transcontinental and transoceanic initiative, with a network of railroad and motorways envisioned under the CPEC, the port of Gwadar will connect China with Central Asia, Africa, Middle East and Europe. Being a bilateral benefit for both sides, on one end it economically uplifts China’s largely undeveloped western regions of Tibet and Xinjiang.

Through the CPEC Corridor, China also circumvents the Strait of Malacca, a major conduit for Beijing’s oil imports. Of the total oil that China currently consumes, nearly 52 percent is supplied by the Middle East, duly shipped through sealines in the western Indian Ocean.  On the other hand, CPEC is a windfall opportunity for huge FDI in Pakistan and infrastructure to uplift its development, wherein Pakistan can permanently create logistic rental for its currently struggling economy.

With the development of ML-1, a $58 billion investment project of China in Pakistan, the ailing railway infrastructure immediately receives a straight boost to modernize its system. The Free Zones development along the CPEC region further attracts foreign investment, along with the technology transfer for local industrial growth.

Pakistan’s maritime blue economy which remained unattended for a very long time now receives a positive chance to conduct marine scientific research on its 290,000 sq. km of its maritime-jurisdiction. Extensive mapping, oceanographic surveys, and sea beds are far overdue for our entire maritime-jurisdictional zones, which can now be undertaken jointly with China under CPEC.

Pakistan and China both have fairly modern oceangoing survey vessels in their inventory, which can all be used for maximum potential. Pakistan’s national and coastal economy is immensely sea-tied- which has a 1048 km long coastline to benefit its economy if its potential is explored in the right direction.

While accessing this all potential of Pakistan and the hitherto lackluster internal political and economic condition, India has availed its opportunity to re-vang its poisonous teeth to damage the interests of Pakistan and re-contracted CharBahar. Pakistan needs to revitalize Chinese support immediately, by proposing a joint Naval and Ship-building Port in Jiwani on a war footing. A true and sustainable exploitation of Pakistan’s maritime potential based on genuine scientific research and a strong naval base in Jiwani, right at the start of the Persian Gulf, will yield rich strategic dividends for both Pakistan and China.

No nation can permit conspiracy to disable its sovereignty. While sovereignty has multiple ingredients, territoriality is an integral feature of political and economic independence. Territoriality is a principle that Pakistan can’t compromise at any cost. The success of CPEC will depend on Pakistan’s political, economic, and defense resolve. While revisiting its foreign policy and strategic interests, and readjusting geo-politics and geo-economic doctrines, Pakistan needs to re-exert its regional strong position. The poisonous snakes need their heads slittered.

By Dr. Ahsan Rajput ~ The writer is a prominent scholar of Law (a jurist) and fellow of the University of Cambridge.

This article was Published on 01st March 2024 in THE ISLAMABAD TELEGRAPH https://theislamabadtelegraph.com/2024/03/jaishankars-dirty-diplomacy-against-pakistan-threats-to-pakistans-blue-economy-needs-immediate-response/