Zowais
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Two things are important for decision making: 1- understanding of dynamics, and ii- vision.,.,.,.,.
Chief of Army Staff General Qamar during a Q&A session with international media.
Question: How do you see security cooperation with #China progressing in the next decade?
#COAS
We are not looking for camp politics.
We had historically excellent relations with US. The good army we have today is largely built and trained by US. The best eqpt we have is American equipment. We still have deep cooperation with #US and our Western friends. A month back #American Air Force was here for a huge exercise with our Air Force.
China of course is a very important neighbor and has helped us in many ways. Our military cooperation with China is growing because we are denied equipment from the West. Many of the deals which were concluded have been cancelled. So what do we do. I shall just give you an example: We bought #T129 helicopters from #Turkey, it's a very good machine, the deal was signed, it's a defensive weapon, it's a gunship but the engine was of American origin so the Americans refused to give the third party certification. So what do we do? Either we wait or go somewhere else; either go to #Russia or go to China. We will prefer to maintain a balance.
Similarly we were looking for some submarines and the #Germans were suppose to give the engines and everything was done. When the submarines were ready, Germans refused to give us the engines. #France has done the same of course under the Indian pressure because #India is a big buyer. So what do you do? It is your responsibility to maintain the balance. If you are tilted towards one side outrightly, we'll find sources from where we can get weapons to save our self. You need to carry out introspection, whether your policy is right or not.
We have been your allies for a very long time, we were part of SEATO, CENTO & Baghdad pact, we supported you in Vietnam, we supported you in Afghanistan, we helped you dismantle the erstwhile Soviet Union and the muck you created yesterday we are trying to clean that. So we have paid a lot of cost. What are you doing about us. I must ask you the question. Are you maintaining a balanced approach or not.
#CPEC is a very important development. There was a problem in Pakistan that we had shortage of electricity, huge shortages. Nobody was coming forward because there was lot of terrorism so Chinese stepped forward and they took the risk and they built these plants. But it doesn't mean that Pakistan is a no go area, if you feel that there is too much of a Chinese influence in Pakistan, the only way to counter is by bringing in the counter investment.
Who stops you? We welcome any investment. Few days back Berrick Gold has signed the deal in which they are going to explore a huge copper mine. Berrick Gold is a Canadian company, the Canadian Ambassador is sitting here. So we will welcome the investment and cooperation from the entire world.
,.,.,.,.
General Bajwa clearly lacks the understanding of holistic definition of "security" including economy, food, energy and other domains.
i- The journalists asks him about china being the closest security partner of Pakistan.
In response he talks about superiority of western military equipment and military training, as if security is a matter of tactics.
World order is changing rapidly and global politics is too complex and fluid to be analyzed and assessed by non-specialists.
Secondly, in a changing world, as it is today, where older knowledge, concepts and even values get obsolete so rapidly, you need leaders to make decision, not the technocrats/bureaucrats etc. Here, I am not denying the importance of their analytical skills, just highlighting the fact these people may not necessarily have "vision" , required for decision making. Vision is about seeing the future, only true leaders have it. lets not expect it from someone being contented to be lifetime sarkari naukar.
PS. There was no need to start (and re-iterate) with "we are not looking for camp politics" unless you want to give certain sureties to west.
