Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto’s career has taken off to a flying start, but his visit to Iran may be his most important one yet. He’s already made impressive headlines in America and China, helping reset one relationship and getting the other to extend its financial lifeline to us, but business in Iran is going to be very different. It is true, like he told his opposite number in Tehran, that the two countries “share immutable historic and fraternal bonds,” yet it is also true that the relationship never got to where it should have been primarily because Islamabad’s loyalties elsewhere forbade any such advances. So it was till the recent Imran Khan administration when the diplomacy was all very fine, but there was literally nothing on the ground to back it up; especially in terms of trade. That’s why it is very encouraging to see the two sides finally sit down and talk very seriously about issues like improving bilateral trade and opening more border crossings for such purposes. It also tells a lot that they are serious about implementing a barter trade agreement that would help them start commercial activity in a number of different sectors. There’s also the commitment to strengthen energy cooperation through the import of additional electricity from Iran, which could be a game-changer if handled right. There’s a lot to learn from Iran. The neighbouring country wrote the book on surviving, even thriving, when sanctioned to the eyeballs by the US and its pro-Israel, pro-Gulf allies, after all. Since we’re also going through the kind of fiscal contraction that can seriously destabilise us, perhaps we can take a leaf out of their book to ride out the storm, if nothing else. Regardless, working on innovative ideas like barter is a crucial step forward that will create further linkages down the road, and should be worked on very seriously. Pakistan’s only hope of growing enough to avoid default lies in finding more trading partners who will also bring their investors here if they like what they see at the end of the transactions. And it’s always a good idea to trade more with neighbours than far away countries. It’s surely much better than not engaging with them because of diplomatic squabbles they might have with other countries that we’re also good friends with. *