- By: Amir Husain
- X: @amirhusain_tx
Pakistan is neither the world’s richest, nor most populous country, but it presently occupies a position on the world stage that no other nation can quite replicate. It maintains a working, positive and multi-dimensional relationship with the United States, is China’s leading partner, is a net security provider and partner for Saudi Arabia, is trusted by Iran more so than any other major country in the region, is scaling cooperation with Russia and has deep, historic and strategic ties with Turkiye. All at the same time.
In a world of binary alignments and the threat of an impending bi-polar fracture, this balance is not improvised or accidental. It is the result of a long-developed and practiced strategy of sovereignty.
This position was not gifted to Pakistan. It was earned through war, diplomatic crises, security crises, economic hardship, capacity development, and yes, also through geography and time. The country sits at the intersection of Asia’s main arteries; between China and the Gulf, between Central Asia and the Arabian sea. It holds the only deep-water port west of India that connects directly to China’s industrial heartland. It possesses nuclear weapons, a triad to deliver them, a large, disciplined military, and a population of nearly a quarter billion. These are unique attributes. And, seen objectively, they form the foundations of a strong form of independence.
Over a 70 year period, Pakistan’s relationship with the United States has had a few ups and downs, but it has been more up than down. The reality is that the U.S. continues to engage with Pakistan because it is in its interest. Washington needs economic access, security partnerships, and connectivity to a region where few others can deliver any of the three. Pakistan offers all of them. Several trillion dollars in mineral wealth. A network of sea, rail and road connectivity for trade. And the most capable and prepared military in the region, as became evident in May, 2025. The relationship has matured from one of necessity to one which is increasingly multi-dimensional, and to which respect has returned. The U.S. recognizes that Pakistan is a nuclear power whose command structure is stable, whose military is professional, and whose cooperation has always mattered in any serious conversation about security in South or Central Asia. Whether SEATO, CENTO, Afghanistan or now, the larger Middle East, it is difficult to get much done without Pakistan.
China’s relationship with Pakistan runs on an entirely different level. It is long-term, infrastructural, and civilizational. The corridor from Gwadar to Kashgar is not just a conduit for trade, it represents civilizational coexistence cemented as infrastructure and commercial relationships. Pakistan provides depth to China’s western frontier, offers access to the warm waters of the Arabian Sea, secures energy supplies, partners on military system design, perfects weapon system employment, and delivers the most high profile “advertisements” for China’s defense industry. China, in turn, extends Pakistan’s reach into the global industrial system, partners on next generation digital connectivity, the emerging space economy, energy, logistics and much more. This is a partnership built on long-term shared interests, and naturally aligned trajectories. Those who know the relationship well understand that there is great depth in it, and hence comfort and space. It is not a matter of dependency, or narrow interests, but of a shared view of prosperity, Asian development and the role of the Global South.
With Saudi Arabia too, Pakistan’s connection is old, cultural and deeply institutional. Pakistani officers have trained Saudi soldiers for generations, and have acted as a shield on multiple occasions. Whether during the siege of the Kaaba, the First Gulf War or now, against Israel’s growing belligerence. Saudi Arabia has long been an investor in and supporter of Pakistan. The new defense pact between the countries formalizes what has existed in practice for decades: a trusted defense partnership, an open channel for capital, and a steady flow of manpower and expertise. But it is not limited to papering what was unsaid. It also raises the stakes by supplying an architecture which others can extend through their participation. These strategic ties can and will likely form the basis of regional stability.
Iran’s relationship with Pakistan is profoundly deep. The Mughal Empire that ruled modern day Pakistan
and India, was a Persian-speaking empire. That legacy is what Pakistan inherits in South Asia. The greatest poets celebrated in Pakistan, from Khusro to Iqbal, wrote their poetry in Farsi. It is true that the region has seen such great unrest and disruption that circumstances have created misunderstandings between Iran and Pakistan. In particular, involving the use of the Pakistan-Iran border by smugglers, RAW proxies and Israeli proxies; the same groups that were seen launching drones and ATGMs from Iranian soil on Iranian military assets. Be that as it may, it is a credit to the fundamental commitment both countries have to each other that misgivings have always been addressed swiftly. At present, both countries are in a strong, cooperative relationship. Trade and energy are back on the table. The “Tashakkur Pakistan” chant in the Iranian parliament has simply never been replicated for any other country and it was recognition that Pakistan secured Iran’s security and engages without hostility. Pakistan has, in fact, never supported any anti-Iran coalition while it maintains respect with both Riyadh and Tehran. The truth is, it is perhaps the only country that can bring these two important countries much closer together; a goal Pakistan shares with China.
Turkiye shares Pakistan’s technical ambitions and strategic temperament. The two most powerful military powers in the Muslim world are the Pakistanis and the Turks. Turkiye remembers the support offered by ordinary Muslims of pre-partition South Asia in defense of the Ottoman Sultanate. Pakistan has always backed Turkiye unflinchingly, whether in the context of Cyprus, Greece, Azerbaijan and Armenia or even to stabilize the TuAF in the aftermath of the failed coup of 2016. Likewise, Turkiye has never shied away from coming to Pakistan’s aid whenever it is required. The most recent example was earlier this year in May. These two countries invest together in autonomous defense systems and see a common strategic future. Both see technology as the guarantor of sovereignty. Their cooperation in drones, ships, and electronics is built on shared doctrine rather than commercial terms alone.
The capacity to sustain all these relationships without contradiction comes from deliberate clarity. The lazy partisan or the unserious analyst may cite superficial reporting in generally uninformed, formulaic mainstream media to explain these away in some zero-sum, narrow transactional context. But explaining away such a singular diplomatic and strategic position that has taken 70+ years to develop, would lack credibility and verge on the nonsensical.
Many in the West might ask which “bloc” Pakistan falls into. But this is only because these questions come from a particular cultural context; the “with us or against us” context. To this style of thinking, security is zero sum. One nation’s security comes at the expense of another’s. But this is not how Pakistan thinks. Pakistan’s security should not come at the expense of Iran’s or China’s. That would be unsustainable and unwise. Pakistan has instead built networks of mutual dependence. It collaborates with the United States on minerals, trains its Air Force with China and Turkiye, and maintains open coordination with Iran and Saudi Arabia. None of this is hidden from view. None of this is “two-timing”. Because that idea of two-timing is a dated, zero sum idea. Independence and shared security can only come from mutual alignment. It can only come from risking some exposure to create a larger joint venture. It is an embrace as opposed to strangulation. And true to the power of the network effect, each relationship strengthens the others.
But before we start to drift away into feel-good language, let’s be clear about what makes all of this possible. Power. Capacity. Real, measurable competence. Population, strategic deterrence, terrain, and location converge in Pakistan in a way that no other Muslim country can replicate. The Gulf states possess wealth but not mass. Turkiye commands industry but not yet nuclear capability or quite the same demographics. Iran has geography but limited access and barriers to overcome with regional partners. Pakistan alone embodies the complete spectrum: demographics, military power, strategic deterrence and reach, and the corridor of connectivity.
What we’ve covered is not lost on thoughtful strategists across the world. That is why every major power engages with Islamabad. Washington. Moscow. Beijing. Riyadh. Ankara and beyond. Pakistan has learned – at great cost – to operate in multiple systems without losing its balance or amateurely playing its relationships off each other. It listens to the West without becoming a proxy to threaten Iran or China; an independent position which was maintained at great cost through the development of the nuclear program, and the post-9/11 conflicts. It works with the East without becoming a “client.” It deals with its neighbors without becoming an extension of any of them. And it engages in the Middle East to foster stability, not to take sides and fuel disputes.
Sovereignty does not mean isolation. It is freedom of action. Pakistan has made that freedom its central principle. Its diplomacy, its military posture, and its economic reorientation all reflect a single idea — that the world should not be divided into blocs that snatch slices of a finite pie, but into opportunities that can be constructed together. The state that engages all parties without surrender will endure longest and deliver to the world, the greatest value.
There are many forces at play in the world, so it remains possible that the global order fragments into competing centers of power. Isolated “us vs them” islands that limit opportunity for all. But the ability to speak to all sides can prevent such an outcome and defines the next generation of leaders. What the world needs is to be kept whole. Pakistan is not yet a wealthy country. It doesn’t send aircraft carriers into oceans far away. But it does sit quietly at the center of a shifting map — young, bustling, nuclear, industrial, independent — engaging every partner that matters, but being subservient to none.