Ties with Iran

Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari’s visit to Iran has come at a time when Pakistan needs to reset its relations with its friends and neighbours for the greater benefit of regional security and Pakistan’s stability in economic terms. Iran is a significant player in the regional dynamics and has held enduring relations with Pakistan over the past many decades – which have threatened to be disrupted due to security and foreign policy compulsions. Now the foreign ministers of Iran and Pakistan have reiterated their commitment to strengthen bilateral relations in diverse areas. The economic crisis that Pakistan is going through calls for better relations with neighbouring countries and Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto has been initiating talks with his counterparts across the region to this end. Building close relations should be a priority and Iran is surely a high priority country for Pakistan. Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian in his joint press conference with Bilawal Bhutto touched upon the possibility of reviving the 2015 nuclear deal.

Pakistan’s fraternal bonds with Iran have been strong but the relations have also seen their vicissitudes in the past two decades. A major stumbling block has been Pakistan’s close relations with the US and Iran’s better relations with India. Somehow, these two inclinations should not have been mutually exclusive but that has been the case. This was made all the more worse due to India fomenting unrest in Pakistan, leading to inevitable mistrust between the two neighbours. Hopefully, there will be a reset in ties and the beginning of a new chapter in bilateral relations. On the face of it, the visit of Pakistan’s foreign minister to Iran has enabled both countries to once again take stock of the entire spectrum of bilateral relations. The two sides have identified new ways to take their relations further particularly in the areas of border management, connectivity, and cooperation in cultural and educational spheres. In addition, there is plenty of potential to enhance people-to-people contact and improve facilitation of pilgrims.

Investment and trade are two more areas where Iran and Pakistan can benefit from better bilateral cooperation. In this, a good outcome of the visit should be a better understanding for expanding trade through operationalization of the barter trade mechanism. As both countries are facing a foreign exchange crunch, more barter trade would be beneficial by easing the pressure of doing business in dollars. Pakistan is in a perpetual need of more energy for its domestic and industrial users, and Iran can offer additional electricity at concessional prices. The Pakistan-Iran pipeline has long been in the works and was originally a brainchild of Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto's father Asif Ali Zardari. Pakistan at this moment, is desperately short of power and could certainly use Iran's help in this sector if it can avoid sanctions from the West. As Iran and Pakistan have remained directly affected by the changing fortunes in Afghanistan, it goes without saying that a stable Afghanistan is significant for both. Any more conflict and instability in the region will be detrimental for all surrounding countries and that is one reason Iran and Pakistan must forge better relations, irrespective of their ties with any other country. This region has longed for peace for decades, and there is a need to build on the outcomes of this visit so that economic and political stability can be achieved with mutual cooperation.