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Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi touch down Pakistan on Monday for three days official visit. On arrival at Prime Minister’s house, President Raisi was received by PM Shahbaz Sharif and was presented with the guard of honour. This visit is accumulating the spotlight of global media due to the visit of President Raisi amid rising tension between Iran and Israel in Middle-East. In this regard, the foreign office of Pakistan has released a statement that:
“The visit was arranged prior to the recent escalation between Iran and Israel and was intended as a step forward to improve relation between the two states, as they got strained by the reciprocal strike in January”.
The Iranian Presidential office has also given statement on Monday regarding the visit that:
“The Islamic Republic of Iran, in alignment with its neighbourhood policy, aims to boost its ties with Pakistan. During the visit, Iran is interested to discuss a various range of topics, including economic, energy, people-to-people contacts, security and other border related issues with Pakistan”.
According to the latest updates, Iran and Islamabad has signed eight accords including “Special Economic Zone” on Pak-Iran border to push bilateral trade and enhance cooperation on various segments including, trade, agriculture, science and technology, culture and judicial matters. President Raisi made decision to increase trade volume by 5 folds to $10bn, to go extra miles in promoting economics and bilateral ties. As added by President Raisi:
“We have decided to boost the bilateral relation further by increasing trade volume to $10bn”.
According to the reports, there are also a possibilities of free trade agreement especially in context to Pakistan-Iran gas pipeline. Although the construction begins in 2011 and is completed by Iranian side since 2019 but the approval was not made by Pakistani government till 2024, even after a dire need of gas supply due to US-lead sanctions. Pakistan was also afraid of attracting sanctions by the US for importing Iranian gas. As the US State Department Spokesperson, Mathew Miller already stated a warning that,
“We always advice everyone that doing business with Iran runs the risk of our sanctions. Its our advice to all to consider that carefully and as assistant secretary made it very clear, we do not support the pipeline project going forward”
In this regard, President Raisi given a Statement:
“You will find some individuals may not favour the expansion of bilateral relation between us, but ultimately their views hold mere significance. We believe it is crucial to expand relation between our countries”.
The statement of President Raisi is a clear message to Washington that, both Tehran and Islamabad share a strong diplomatic relation and they will make decision which will favour them.
According to the reports, The Iranian President will also hold meeting with military official of Pakistan, COAS General Asim Munir, which is approaching different opinions. The former advisor to Foreign Ministry Mosharraf Zaidi has give a written statement to the Al-Jazeera News in which he said:
“President Raisi’s visit is an attempt to garner support from Islamabad and its military leadership for Iran, as it become increasingly entangled in dangerous conflict with Israel”
While giving interview to TRT World, the former Head Defence Committee, Mushahid Hussain Syed said,
“The President Raisi’s visit to Pakistan holds a great significance because of being neighbours and in given context. What happened three months ago is a past history because neither Iran nor Pakistan views each other as adversaries. They are basically Muslim brothers and neighbours sharing common issues of security at their borders”
Hence, this visit favours both Pakistan and Iran bilaterally. Pakistan seeks to secure its border from any future escalation and also pursuing economic opportunities amid challenging economic conditions. Additionally, facing a significant annual depletion of 9% in gas reserves, the nation grapples with industrial shutdowns, posing economic hurdles. In light of these challenges, Iran emerges as a potential ally, capable of offering discounted gas supplies to alleviate Pakistan’s energy concerns. However, it could potentially provoke the rage of the US towards but Pakistan. Nevertheless, Pakistan has to autonomously and rationally navigate the foreign policy decisions and perceive them as a long-term strategic outlook. In Iranian context, it gives message to the world especially to the US that, Iran is not standing alone.
About author:
The writer is the researcher of International Relations at International Islamic University, Islamabad. She is having interest and expertise in Pakistan and Russian Foreign Policy, Geo-Strategic Issues and Interests, Regional Issues, Traditional and Non-Traditional Security Issues, and Human Rights. She is also serving as a director at Metrix Pakistan, which is a non-profit organization, promoting technological transformation and innovation in the remote areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.