Chakar The Great
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Imran Khan recently visited Saudi Arabia after taking charge of primer-ship. He was accompanied by Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Finance Minister Asad Umar, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry and Adviser on Commerce Abdul Razzak Dawood. The visit came days after the Saudi information minister visited Pakistan and met with Khan and other top civil and military officials.Khan's choice of the kingdom for his first official visit, as well as comments from his finance minister, led to speculation that Pakistan will seek a large loan from its Saudi allies to avoid another IMF bailout. Much hype was created in the national and international media about this trip. There were also news that China was upset about involvement of Saudi Arabia as a third "strategic" partner of CPEC. Which was later denounced by Fawad Chaudry ( Minister of Information and Broadcasting) through a press conference.
Sources have revealed that prior to Khan's visit to Kingdom , maters were finalized regarding Saudis helping Pakistan with huge investment as well as deffered-payments on oil products along with US $ 6-8 Billions support to economy. This was all linked to Imran Khan's agreement to few of the Saudis demands. It was assured to custodian of the two holy mosques that Imran Khan would agree to Saudi demands. However Imran khan after consultation with his colleagues including people in armed forces politely declined some of the demands especially openly supporting Yemen War and not sending troops if need arises over the next few years.
Pakistani pilots flew Royal Saudi Air Force planes against South Yemen in 1969 and Pakistani troops were deployed in the kingdom at the height of the first Iraq War. In return, the Saudis have bailed out Pakistan financially and diplomatically in times of trouble. However things have changed in the recent past, in 2014 Pakistan rejected a request by its “most allied” ally in the Middle East to deploy troops against Bahrain and displayed the same reluctance to join Saudi Arabia’s fight in Yemen.
The other major concern was with regard to Iran. Geographic contiguity and greater cooperation between Islamabad and Tehran in the recent years have created anxieties among Saudis despite repeated reassurances by Pakistani side. Leadership in Kingdom wanted Pakistan to pressurize Iran and was also looking for a naval base at Jiwani which is right next to Gwader.
Saudi Arabia and US are strategic allies. Last year Saudi Arabian King Salman bin Abdulaziz and Donald Trump signed agreements to bolster the military capabilities of Saudi Arabia, said to be worth $350 billion over 10 years and $110 billion that will take effect immediately. Saudis conveyed to Khan US concerns over Pakistan's policy in Afghanistan. Saudis expressed the desired that they would like to see issues between Pakistan and US to be resolved, one such issue being Shakil Afridi's release.
Pakistan also expressed fears that grew dramatically after Saudi Arabia did not veto Pakistan’s inclusion on the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey list in February 2018.
