Abstract:
Pakistan-Russia relations have a complex history of
divergences, contradictions and ambiguities that
heightened during the Cold War and subsequent era of
Afghan Jihad. However, the gradual rapprochement that
paved the way for institutionalised engagement started
after Pakistan joined the war against terrorism. Based on
secondary review of academic and online sources, this
article explores how relations between the two countries
evolved from estrangement to institutional engagement,
with a special focus on why this relationship is significant
for both. Economic, energy, defence, counterterrorism,
and socio-cultural domains are the important variables
that are discussed. Given existing geopolitical
compulsions like Moscow‟s quest for playing a decisive
role in Afghanistan‟s security calculus; Pakistan‟s pursuit
for coming out of the United States‟ straitjacket and
finding alternative regional partners offer the reasons,
challenges and outlook in shaping prospective ties. It is
argued that Pakistan-Russia ties are likely to improve in
the future, especially in terms of economic, defence and
counterterrorism cooperation.
