Southeast Asia in Pakistan's Foreign Policy

PAKISTAN'S FOREIGN POLICY by and large has been conceived and pursued in terms of its relations with major powers such as the United States, China, and the Soviet Union.* Its dominant concern has been the threat which, in Pakistani eyes, India has posed to its security. Recently economic development has become another important objective of Pakistan's foreign policy. But these policy orientations, discernible in Pakistan's relations with major powers, are also reflected in her relations with countries in such regions as the Middle East and Southeast Asia. In order to determine how important such Southeast Asian countries as Malaysia and Indonesia are in the foreign policy of Pakistan, one could apply the simple content-analysis test to the policy-pronouncements of some of the key decision-makers in Pakistan. In a compilation of speeches made before the General Assembly and its Committees during 1957-65 by the former Foreign Minister, Mr. Bhutto, Southeast Asian countries were not once mentioned.' Similarly, out of the nineteen speeches made by President Ayub during the period January to December, i967, in which he dealt with foreign policy, Indonesia was mentioned only twice and Malaysia not once. In the two chapters that the President has written on foreign policy in his recent autobiography, the only specific reference to Indonesia is when he suggests that Pakistan should belong to a major constellation extending from Casablanca to Djakarta.2 Ayub merely expresses the pious hope that Indonesia, along with other populous Muslim countries like Pakistan, would play a vital role in such a constellation. However, the central theme of the two chapters is that Pakistan's foreign policy revolves around its relationship with the United States, China, and the U.S.S.R., with India constituting the single major threat to Pakistan's security. It may also be suggested that one of the reasons why Pakistani policymakers have not given adequate attention to Southeast Asia is because, in

Ancient history · Development economics · Economics · Foreign policy · Geography · Political science · Politics · Southeast asia · Bangladesh Politics, Society, and Development · History · International Relations and Foreign Policy · Law · Politics and Conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Middle East