Islamabad recently declared an ‘Engage Africa’ policy through which it aims to ‘develop a more robust economic partnership’. Under the guise of this policy, the Pakistan Navy (PN), has deployed its tanker PNS Nasr on a ‘humanitarian aid and disaster relief mission to assist the vulnerable population affected by the natural disasters in African countries’ – according to an official press release. Nasr is on deployment to Djibouti, Sudan and Niger to hand over food aid, and also pay a goodwill visit at Mombassa, Kenya. Pertinently, this is the second visit of PN ships to Africa in last two years, with PN Ships Moawin and Aslat, also undertaking a goodwill visit to African countries in 2020.
The timing and scale of Pakistan’s recent efforts in Africa merits a closer look. With resident Missions in only 13 of 54 countries, and bilateral trade accounting for only 0.3%, Islamabad seems to have suddenly awoken to the opportunities afforded by the rapidly growing economies of the African continent. It is interesting to analyse how and why Pakistan has embraced this change in outlook, given the economic and political distress it is currently undergoing.
Pakistan’s public debt went past 87% at the end of the last financial year and its external liabilities skyrocketed to $113.8 bn. Debt servicing has been such a severe problem for Islamabad, that it has entered a virtually unending cycle of seeking fresh loans to repay earlier ones. Interestingly, the debt problems for Islamabad got out of hand only once the CPEC rolled out… the huge Chinese project aimed at re-energising the Pak economy has virtually sent it into a veritable death-spiral instead! Ironically, whenever Pakistan finds itself on the brink of defaulting on a repayment, they are rescued by their Chinese all-weather friends, who are steadily and irreversibly taking ownership of their new South Asian ‘province’.
The problem for Pakistan is getting exacerbated with the international community getting increasingly firm on it for lack of effective actions against the terrorist ecosystem which the deep-state has nurtured over the last three decades. In February this year, Pakistan was retained on the ‘Grey List’ by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) for failing to take adequate corrective actions to curb wide-spread money laundering used to finance its ‘global terror nursery’. Failure to act against multiple globally designated terrorists, as well as the decision to acquit journalist Daniel Pearl’s killer, has not gone down well with the global community.
It is, therefore, interesting to analyse why, instead of working at addressing internal issues, it is embarking on ‘goodwill’ efforts which it can ill afford. The answer to this seemingly ill-afforded diplomatic outreach may lie with the Army leadership at Rawalpindi, which is the true proponent of foreign policy, rather than the Foreign Service like any other country. Consequently, one must understand why the all-powerful Pakistan military is suddenly interested in Africa?
The failure of the CPEC, especially the port of Gwadar, to deliver meaningful outcomes has become a point of concern for Beijing. The project was supposed to showcase the win-win potential of BRI to the world, but instead has become a cautionary example for all with many countries putting a hold on their initial enthusiasm for the project. With any Chinese overture likely to have negative outcomes, the Pakistan military leadership has been spurred into finding ways to ‘make Gwadar work’ – something that they are not in a position to refuse considering that, the Pakistan Army leadership today is now completely subservient to Beijing, economically and militarily. Only the support from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) allows these Generals to retain their preponderance over the Pakistan state. Consequently, the ‘Engage Africa’ policy and the attendant uptick in diplomatic engagements, including by the Navy, is a manifestation of efforts in this regard. With no money to run its routine operations, it is almost certain that the funding for such outreach is from China-supplied resources.
As China seeks to seize control of the vast untapped economic potential of Africa, Pakistan seems to have gladly acquiesced to act as its proxy. The ‘Engage Africa’ and naval diplomacy which it is undertaking appears to be another front for the neo-imperialist designs of the CCP. Pakistan’s military leadership, as well as their political appointees, who have already surrendered control of Pakistan’s future to Beijing and are now involved in a devious plan to achieve the same situation across Africa.
The growing India-Africa cooperation, supplemented by joint efforts of New Delhi with Tokyo under the Asia Africa Growth Corridor (AAGC), would definitely have raised concerns in Pakistan. To add to their discomfiture, the Indian Navy was globally lauded for its outreach under Mission Sagar wherein ships and aircraft providing essential relief to countries in Africa, including medical assistance, at a time when most countries across the world were in lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Pakistan Navy, which has constantly endeavoured to project itself at par with the Indian Navy, regardless of the immense gap in capabilities and capacities, was compelled to take action. In the recently concluded Exercise Aman, the Pakistan Navy announced that 45 nations had participated… without letting on that only 7 countries had sent their ships for the event… This is a classic example of how Pakistan, particularly its Navy, tries to mislead the world, and achieve some semblance of parity with India.
With the Indian Navy rapidly emerging as the Preferred Security Partner in the Indian Ocean Region, the Pakistan Navy has intensified its efforts to undermine India’s mission to establish meaningful and mutually beneficial relationships with nations across Asia and Africa. There is strong anti-India rhetoric in all Pakistan messaging during their overseas visits. In fact, even as the Pakistan Army Chief was talking about promoting peace in the region a few weeks back, the Pakistan Navy ship on OSD to Africa, continued to propagate misinformation about Kashmir during its port calls. Even though most host nations have politely indicated their discomfort with such tactics, the Pakistan Navy continues to employ them, rather shamelessly. Moreover, such blatant double-speak highlights the lack of honesty and commitment to regional peace on Pakistan’s behalf, with the Army Chief’s credibility being eroded by the concurrent actions of these PN ships.
It is necessary for the international community to take note of the ‘poisoned fruit’ which the Pakistan Navy comes bearing disguised as ‘gifts’. The sad truth is that, if the effort was honest and well-intentioned, both the Pakistani people and African nations, could indeed gain a lot from good bilateral relations and two-way trade. However, these elaborate plans to gain influence and subsequently exploit the African continents would only end up filling the coffers of the elite Generals of Pakistan. With Beijing’s hegemonistic plans facing strong headwinds, it is amply clear that Pakistan’s African Embrace is nothing but a Chinese Trojan Horse which needs to be proactively opposed and exposed for its true nature.
