Post 9/11 Pak-China Strategic Drive: A Retort to India and Balance the Power

Abstract

This paper analyses the post 9/11 strategic partnership between China and Pakistan as an external balancing strategy, especially in response to Indo-US strategic cooperation. It seeks to answer how Pakistan’s strategic alignment with China evolved as a deliberate external balancing mechanism to offset India’s post-9/11 regional ascendancy and the Indo-U.S. strategic partnership. Moreover, India’s growing and gaining its regional influence, this Study further asserts that the enhanced Sino-Pak alliance is a strategic tactic to contest India’s conventional and nuclear hegemony in South Asia. Post 9/11, Pakistan faced a strategic conundrum, with its role as a frontline ally in the war on terror and concurrently needed to develop its capacity to counter India’s bolstered defence posture after the Indo-US nuclear accord. This research evaluates China’s role as Pakistan’s primary defence and diplomatic partner, empowering Pakistan with its military support, arms shipments and development through strategic infrastructure. This study further highlights that by strengthening bilateral agreements, joint military cooperation and diplomatic alliance. This article extends the comprehension of external balancing in a trilateral context in terms of persistent rivalries and evolving partnerships post 9/11 in South Asia, impacting regional dynamics in terms of security too, by integrating economic interdependence, diplomatic collaboration, and security partnership.