The excessive flooding of posts on social media on the recent upsurge of Pakistan’s small arms & ammunition exports to the USA and on how the United States relies on imports of this category of weaponry from friendly countries, as it transitioned quite a while back to much more valued added equipment, should really come as no surprise. Put simply, Pakistan has the capacity to produce a surplus in this grade and hence the exports, if there exists an international demand for it. Trust the only caution from an international perspective is that it does so responsibly, which it has done by supplying to an allied country, something that is fairly routine between, for example, NATO allies - even uniforms are exchanged or intra-sourced, if required. Of course, the other aspect being of domestic transparency where one hopes the manufacturers (who are strictly in the public sector domain) operate on optimal efficiencies in pricing and production since this could be the key to in-turn maximising earnings; something that always tends to be a challenge with the workings of the state-owned enterprises.
Also, in this very context, perhaps it is time to now develop an independent apex oversight mechanism to ensure corporate governance in such closed sectors, whereby one sees to it that due to its rather sensitive nature, the necessary confidentiality is maintained while ensuring organisational sustainability and long-term national interests. All countries always first safeguard their own national interests before going out to shoulder geo-political responsibilities and Pakistan need not be an exception. Even if the shoe is on the other foot, the mantra of national interests remains the same. For example, crude oil prices are once again nudging the $100 threshold, sufficient to ring alarm bells across the world. Significantly, it also puts the spotlight on India’s out-of-the-box intervention in the crude oil economy. Ignoring Western sanctions, and taunts, it continued to trade with Russia for the purchase of crude oil.
Surprisingly India got away with this audacious stand in the face of Western pressures. Why? Because the reality of facing economic devastation if the prices of crude say went all the way up to the $150 or even $200 mark (as was opined by some analysts at the time) took precedence over any other global considerations. Despite pressure—from both Western nations and their media who termed it as a renegade—India continued to import from Russia. In fact, India was procuring Russian supplies at a rate below global market rates. Ironically, the chief proponents of ‘isolate Russia’ movement, the European Nations, were busy doing the same thing, if not directly then indirectly. The Russian crude oil continued to drive Europe and it still does. Only change being that in the post Russia-Ukraine war, the supplies take a detour through India—price for the claim to hold the moral high ground! One entry point for Europe is Netherlands. In 2019—the pre-covid year—India’s exports to Netherlands were around $9 billion. Post the outbreak of Russia-Ukraine war this has more than doubled to almost the $20 billion mark.
In fact, the country has become the top destination for Indian exports of petroleum products. The post covid and now the post-Ukraine war break-out mark a very important pivot in countries foreign policy stance, wherein it has become important that amidst these chaotic times, a country forms its international engagement economic policies in a way that safeguards its own economic interests, otherwise it can end up eroding its own economy; something that we have seen happen in Pakistan vis-à-vis a pull-down from Afghanistan after the US withdrawal from there. Unlike in the past, of late the world has even seen no less a power than the United States walk away from multilateral agreements/negotiations if they tend to be against their economic interests. So, in this vein, the focus for us also should be economic returns while seeing to it that Pakistan is open for business with all and that it will do so without getting unnecessarily embroiled in the wars or disputes of others. Pakistan First!