Imran Khan to visit Moscow this week after attending the Winter Olympic Games in Beijing

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan Niazi wrote an article that appeared under the headline ‘A letter from Prime Minister of Pakistan…’ in Global Times, state-run English daily in Beijing on 30 January, 2021. Days later he was attending the opening ceremony of the winter Olympics in China. Next week he is due to visit Russia. The diplomatic initiative or even aggression is being watched with great interest by New Delhi.

Imran Khan began his article by reminding the global diplomatic community that Pakistan was the first Muslim country that recognized the People’s Republic of China in 1950, set up diplomatic ties next year and remained ‘the most vocal supporter of the lawful rights of China in the United Nations’.

He referred to the “AllWeather Strategic Cooperative Partnership” between the two countries and reminded readers of the role played by Pakistan in facilitating the famous “secret” visit of Henry Kissinger, then US National Security Advisor, to China in 1971 that had ‘a decisive impact on EastWest relations.

The Pakistani PM wrote about the ‘deep mutual trust, understanding and commonality of interests in Islamabad-Beijing – relationship. He recalled Pakistan’s consistent endorsement of the “One-China Policy” and Beijing’s position on Taiwan, Tibet, Xinjiang, Hong Kong and South China Sea.

Predictably he did not make any reference to China’s policy towards Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region where thousands of ethnic Muslims are interned.

Barely a fortnight before this article was published, the Kremlin Press Service in Moscow issued a statement on the Pakistani premier’s telecon with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The latter underscored Russia’s broad support to Pakistan and the Muslim world. Moscow was never so openly aligned with Islamabad during the Soviet regime. India’s era of camaraderie with the Russians in post-Stalin USSR is now a thing of the past, a direct fallout of burying of India’s policy of non-alignment and PM Modi’s tilt towards the US.

Diplomats and foreign policy experts are watching with interest Pakistan’s simultaneous befriending of China and Russia and keeping the US administration in good humour at the same time.

US President Joe Biden is yet to have a telephonic discussion with Imran Khan but Washington D.C. is unable to take its eyes off the South Asian political chessboard with Pakistan-RussiaChina axis getting cemented. The Pakistani premier has offered to mediate between China and the United States to resolve their differences and avert a potentially new “Cold War”.

Putin was critical of USA and Britain calling for a diplomatic boycott of the Winter Games in Beijing, accusing them of politicising sport and violating the Olympic charter, whose motto is peaceful competition among nations.

He asserted during his visit to Beijing earlier this month. “Together (with China) we oppose the politicisation of sport and demonstrative boycotts. We support traditional Olympic values: equality and justice first of all”.

However, India, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Estonia and Lithuania joined the US and the United Kingdom in boycotting the opening ceremony as a gesture of protest at human rights abuses by China.

The cricketer-turned-premier of Pakistan appears to have stolen a march over Narendra Modi who boasts that he has catapulted Indian foreign policy to a new height.

(This article was first published in National Herald on Sunday)