Foreign policy debacle
What was being hinted at in media reports over the last few days has now been exposed by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Speaking to Turkish media on November 20, 2019, President Erdogan without pulling any punches said Saudi Arabia had coerced Pakistan into skipping the Kuala Lumpur summit by threatening to expel the four million Pakistanis working in Saudi Arabia and replacing them with Bangladeshis and withdrawing the amount deposited in the State Bank of Pakistan last year for shoring up foreign exchange reserves. Erdogan concluded that Pakistan had to fall in line due to its economic difficulties. The Saudi ambassador in Islamabad has responded to Erdogan’s statement and termed it incorrect. It may be recalled that Malaysian Prime Minister (PM) Mahathir Mohammad, President Erdogan and PM Imran Khan in a meeting in New York in September 2019 had decided to hold the Kuala Lumpur summit of Muslim countries to address the woes of the Muslim world regarding their being left behind in terms of development by the non-Muslim countries, long standing issues such as Palestine, Kashmir, etc. Although Imran Khan was one of the three prime movers of the summit idea, he had to pull out at the eleventh hour after his visit to Riyadh to meet the Saudi leadership failed to persuade the latter, who instead threatened withdrawal of economic and financial help to Pakistan that it could ill afford. Imran Khan did call Mahathir to explain the reasons for his last minute withdrawal, and the latter even called Saudi King Salman to clear the air of suspicions and allegations being hurled by the Saudi-dominated Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) at the summit as weakening Islam because it was viewed as an attempt to create a new platform to unite the Muslim world instead of the OIC. The divisions in the Muslim world are hardly a secret, and the turnout of 20 countries in Kuala Lumpur instead of the 57 members of OIC invited showed the mirror to the ground realities. Erdogan and Mahathir have been critical of the OIC for being little more than a hand-wringing club when it comes to the issues facing the Muslim world.
The Pakistani Foreign Office’s new spokeswoman has issued a bland statement trying to paper over the debacle that has damaged Pakistan’s relations with both sides of the Muslim world’s divide. This can hardly be described as good foreign policy handling. The style of working of PM Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf government, apart from other complaints regarding domestic affairs, has now been exposed by this foreign policy debacle. What has transpired could have been predicted, if PM Imran Khan had taken the trouble to have the Kuala Lumpur summit proposal weighed as to its pros and cons by the expert input of the Foreign Office. The only consolation Pakistan’s wounded pride can now boast of after this debacle is that Malaysia has clarified that it, Turkey and Pakistan are still on board regarding a joint television channel to combat Islamophobia worldwide. Perhaps Imran Khan forgot that the Saudis and the UAE were already seething at the snub by Pakistan’s parliament during the previous Nawaz Sharif government to the former’s request for sending Pakistani troops to aid the Saudi coalition’s part in the Yemen war. That decision proved correct for Pakistan’s national interest, which dictates that we should not get dragged into the region’s armed conflicts. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani was also prominent at the Kuala Lumpur summit, and his presence may have acted as the red rag to the Saudis. Pakistan is attempting to play a balancing act between its Shia neighbour Iran and the Saudi-led Sunni Arab states, a policy entirely in line with Pakistan’s interests. The ticklish part of that balancing act of course is to keep Riyadh mollified while retaining good relations with Tehran. Let the government learn from this debacle not to rush in where angels fear to tread and formulate its foreign policy in the light of its economic vulnerabilities and desire to stay out of conflicts that divide and wrack the Muslim world at present.
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