Russia and Pakistan, the two Cold War rivals, are holding joint military exercise “Druzhba-2017” (September 25-October 4) in Russia’s North Caucasus. The September 25 opening ceremony in the village of Nizhny Arkhyz was attended by 200 troops and special forces commanders from both countries, Pakistani General Saeed Alamdar Houssein Shah said the exercise was “of great importance” to both…
Extensive interview on Russian-Pakistani relations that Andrew Korybko gave exclusively to Mr. Muhammad Taimur Khan of the Institute of Strategic Studies, Islamabad (ISSI) and which was published in the July 2017 edition of The Diplomatic Insight. 1. A great shift has been witnessed in Pakistan-Russia relations lately. In your opinion, what are the reasons behind…
The Iranian leader, Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei, made a strikingly strong statement on the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar this week, berating “hypocritical” (presumably Western) governments for their double standards on human rights. Addressing a gathering of clerical students, Khamenei on Tuesday urged Muslim countries to apply pressure on the Myanmar government, which according to Khamenei…
As President Hasan Rouhani prepares to address the UN General Assembly in New York and the Trump administration and allies relentlessly lobby for the Iran nuclear deal to be decertified, Tehran is busy clinching deal after deal with Asians and Europeans. For the Chinese government, Iran – and Pakistan – are so geopolitically important that they are…
Sixteen years after 9/11, and the subsequent US bombing that toppled the Taliban, where do we stand? Osama bin Laden is no more. Al-Qaeda is not in Afghanistan but swarming Idlib province in Syria, metastasized into Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the former Jabhat al-Nusra; 30,000 jihadis with combat experience who absorbed brigades from other “moderate…
Even before the Indian establishment and the media stopped their celebrations over the BRICS declaration in Xiamen in China earlier this month condemning terrorist groups, including those based in Pakistan, hoping that this could be the game-changer moment in Islamabad-Beijing relations, the Chinese made a U-turn by openly defending their all-weather ally. In fact, China’s…
