Pakistan and Arab World: Security Cooperation

[CrowBat]

Answer from Islamabad:
Pakistan minister hits out at UAE over Yemen criticism

...Pakistan’s interior minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan hit back on Sunday night in an unusually strongly worded statement, accusing the UAE of “making threats.”

“This is not only ironic but a thought-provoking moment that a minister of UAE is hurling threats at Pakistan. The statement of the UAE minister is in stark violation of all diplomatic norms prevalent according to the principals of international relations,” he said.

“Pakistan is an honored nation and has brotherly emotions for the people of UAE along with Saudi Arabia, but this statement of an Emirati minister is equal to an offence against the ego of Pakistan and its people and is unacceptable.”

Pakistan was the first country to recognize the independence of the UAE in 1971 and the two Sunni Muslim-majority countries have close economic ties.
...

Overall, one is left to wonder: OK, the UAEAF has deployed about a dozen of its F-16E/Fs to Saudi Arabia. But, why do they need Pakistani troops if they're so eager to go into Yemen?

[blueblood]

Answer from Islamabad:
Pakistan minister hits out at UAE over Yemen criticism


Overall, one is left to wonder: OK, the UAEAF has deployed about a dozen of its F-16E/Fs to Saudi Arabia. But, why do they need Pakistani troops if they're so eager to go into Yemen?

Because they don't have people.

In 2013, the UAE's total population was 9.2 million, of which 1.4 million are Emirati citizens and 7.8 million are expatriates.

Their armed forces are mostly comprised of Pakistani ex military. IIRC, fighting arm of UAE Army stands about 2 Div. I don't think that UAE can afford to send even a brigade to Yemen. Pakistan, OTOH has one of the largest standing army in the world.

[CrowBat]

...perhaps they should think about such 'irrelevant details' BEFORE getting themselves involved in mindless military interventions...

[blueblood]

...perhaps they should think about such 'irrelevant details' BEFORE getting themselves involved in mindless military interventions...

Well they did. They (Arabs) have been thinking about this for decades. Hence every now and then, they call in Pak army to handle dirty stuff for them. From crushing Black September in Jordan in 1970 to crushing Bahraini Arab spring in 2011. From officially PA tanks rolling to "advisers" sent to supervise the situation. Hence the funds for PA modernization both over or under the table.

A Pakistani ex military/LE, can earn literally multiple times his official salary when working in middle east.

Unlike the immensely lazy Arabs who can't fight even if their life's dependent on it, PA was (not anymore) a very British institution which means discipline, training, traditional and all that stuff.

[blueblood]

Admin of a Pak defence forum painstakingly created a list "Has Pakistan 'back stabbed' Arabs?"

There are arguments floating in the Arab media about how Pakistan has 'back stabbed' the Arabs, let's take some lessons from history to understand what Pakistan has done for Arabs. This will help the readers understand if Pakistan which itself is in ICU has 'back stabbed' Arabs or its them who are apathetic to Pakistan's own security situation which has claimed over 80,000 Pakistanis killed so far.

In 1969, Pakistani pilots participated in the Saudi offensive inside Yemen to target Houthi rebels, to subdue them and secure the southern border of Saudi Arabia.

Pakistan began with help to the Royal Saudi Air Force to build and pilot its first jet fighters in the 1960s. Pakistani Air Force pilots flew RSAF Lightnings that repulsed a South Yemeni incursion into the kingdom’s southern border in 1969.

Pakistan contributed fighter Pilots in two Arab Israeli wars.

In the 1980s, Pakistan sent about 15,000 troops to secure Saudi Arabia from internal threats.

Pakistani engineers also helped build fortifications along the southern Saudi border, in part to help counter Houthi rebels.

Up until the First Gulf War, there was a detachment of thousands of Pakistani soldiers posted in Saudi Arabia.

Pakistan’s experienced military helped train the undermanned and underprepared militaries of a number of fledgling Arab states.

The former Pakistani President Zia-ul-Haq once even commanded a unit of troops in Jordan tasked with combating & crushing the Palestinian fighters during Operation Black September.

Pakistan provided 700 military personal to Kuwait during its conflict with Iraq.

Pakistan's training program for Arab forces is running from 1960s and continues till date and it spans all three services.

Pakistan established a secret Ballistic Missile base in Saudi Arabia to defend it from foreign threats.

[davidbfpo]

The NYT op-ed 'Pakistan, the Saudis’ Indispensable Nuclear Partner' by:

Pervez Hoodbhoy is a professor of physics and mathematics. He teaches at Forman Christian College in Lahore and Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad.

Link:http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/22/op...ani-rift.html?

Near the start he writes:

The recent deterioration of Pakistan’s ties with its Arab benefactors, even if it turns out to be temporary, is unprecedented.

He ends with:

Except that now Saudi Arabia, which is too rich to be ignored yet too weak to defend itself, has reason to fear that Pakistan, its indispensable nuclear partner, might no longer simply follow its diktats.

[CrowBat]

It's quite simple, actually: during the recent visit by President Xi Jinping in Pakistan, Beijing and Islamabad signed a number of deals, worth US$ 46 billion (for some of details, see here).

These are including construction of a natural gas pipeline from Iran to Pakistan, and then building up an entire 'China-Pakistan Economic Corridor' (CPEC), which is including a network of roads, railways and pipelines between Gwadar, Lahore and Islamabad in Pakistan and Xinjiang region in China, plus expansion of Pakistani ports.

With other words: 'sorry Saudis', but since you're not investing as much into Pakistan (or if, then only into local nuclear weapons and madrasses for training of Jihadists), Chinese are far more interesting.