After Imran Khan's exit Pakistan goes back to its default position—mends fences with Saudi Arabia and UAE

They have been one of Pakistan’s most enduring backers and Shahbaz Sharif’s very first foreign visit, after taking over as Prime Minister of Pakistan, to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and thereafter to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), set the compass for the future trajectory of the country’s foreign policy. A priority is to mend fences with these two energy powerhouses, as bilateral relations had been in a free fall under the now deposed Prime Minister Imran Khan.

To be fair to Imran Khan, relations between the two sides had begun to deteriorate since the time of Nawaz Sharif and his government’s refusal to participate in the Saudi-Emirati war in Yemen in 2015. That spurred the Saudi led coalition to go it on their own and it still remains embroiled in the war with no end in sight while the Houthi rebels, backed by Iran, have become increasingly aggressive targeting oil installations inside Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

Given the deep and strong security relations between Pakistan and the Gulf States, rooted in the client-State paradigm, and Pakistan’s overwhelming economic dependence on the Saudis and the Emiratis – nearly 2.7 million Pakistanis live and work in Saudi Arabia and about 1.2 million in the UAE, this was simply unacceptable. Pakistan, on the other hand, turned to iron friend China for economic relief through the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

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