The matter of importing oil and wheat from Russia has become complicated for no reason at all. And whether or not the Imran Khan administration had really raised this issue with Moscow, the present government is right to follow it with fresh vigour. But it should understand that this is not just a usual matter of trade relations with another country. Nor is it complicated just because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and everything that stems from it. A trade pact with Russia would bring Pakistan into the Russia-China-Iran orbit which advocates and routinely conducts non-dollar trade, including oil, which infuriates the west far more than President Putin’s concerns about Nato’s expansion further east. Pakistan is already extremely close to China, so this should not be too difficult a prospect to consider. Beijing has been trying to get Islamabad to carry out currency swaps and trade in yuan instead of the dollar, even lent money for it, but the arrangement hasn’t quite worked out yet. Pakistan has also resisted becoming a part of this axis that stretches across Asia because some of our friends in the Gulf don’t want us getting too cozy with Iran, and Washington has always pushed us away from Moscow; something former PM Imran Khan used to turbo charge his conspiracy theory. Of course Pakistan can also trade with Russia without all these constraints and concerns. But owing to war and western sanctions imposed on it, it has lashed out by declaring that Russian gas will only trade in the rouble till it says otherwise. That’s where it will start getting very complicated for Pakistan. Because even if it takes the plunge and goes for such complications, it would first have to develop the framework for it and also do something about the debt pipeline that would freeze in an instant. That’s why the foreign ministry is doing the right thing by approaching this thing in calculated phases. Affordable gas and wheat would be a godsend for Pakistan, but we have to work out very wisely how to approach it. Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto has made a pretty impressive start by drawing praise from Washington to Beijing. Constructive engagement is a far better way of addressing such concerns than accusations and conspiracy theories. *