Daily Times

It is very welcome news that Pak-Russia joint military special forces exercises, aptly dubbed Druzbha (Friendship), have continued to grow since they began in 2016. The two countries have clearly decided to forge a long-term partnership and are testing the waters with military-to-military interaction. Since these exercises are about sharing both armies’ experiences in counter-terrorism, there will be a lot for each side to learn. Pakistan got the best on-the-job training when it put an end to the TTP (Tehreek e Taliban Pakistan) insurgency through military action in the tribal area and combing intelligence-based follow up combing operations in the rest of the country.

The Russians, for their part, have just had their edges sharpened in one of the most brutally testing battle grounds in the world in Syria, where Moscow’s intervention a few years ago not only thwarted the advances of al Qaeda, al Nusrah Front, ISIS, etc, but also secured the government of President Bashar al Assad in Damascus. Now these two sides will teach each other what they learned in the field and make valuable advances to modern war theory, which will strengthen their positions as the most battle-hardened and battle-ready forces in the world.

There is a deeper reason to celebrate this partnership. For the longest time Pakistan forged its most cherished diplomatic alliances with countries that were very far away. And with the exception of China, Islamabad tended to overlook making regional alliances in favour of making rich and powerful friends far away. Beijing, on the other hand, was very careful to be very good friends with most countries in its area of influence. That is why, over the years, such a strong bond emerged between Russia, China and Iran; forming an arc across the continent where friends look out for each other’s interests. Sadly Pakistan was the missing link in this arc for the longest time because its foreign allegiances lay in the Gulf and across the Atlantic. These exercises with Russia come in the backdrop of the realisation that this anomaly must be corrected. Surely Beijing is doing what it can to push Islamabad and Moscow even closer together. Once they forge a strong military alliance and then make advances in trade and commerce, the whole region will be better off. *