ORSAM Lecture: Pakistan and The Middle East
Since its independence Pakistan has maintained strong bilateral ties with different Middle Eastern Nations and has played an active role not only in the political sphere but also in its security environment. The new Pakistani government of Imran Khan in its first one year has tried to strengthen and consolidate these traditional ties with friends and allies in the broader Middle East. These overtures have helped Pakistan both on a political and financial level. With both civilian and military leaderships essentially in the same line, Pakistan has been trying to develop strategic ties with its Middle Eastern allies which are now more structural and less personality oriented. For the Pakistani government and people, support from partners in the Middle East on the issue of Kashmir remains vital. Pakistan does understand the rise in Indian political and economic stature yet any potential Indian involvement in Middle Eastern security domain will be viewed with scepticism.
There are many other critical points such as the Pakistani workers in the Gulf countries, security cooperation, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, India’s relations with the Arab world. ORSAM will host Mr. Umer Karim to give a lecture about Pakistan’s relations with the Middle East and we invite those who are interested in these dynamic relations.
Speaker: Mr. Umer Karim, Researcher,
Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), London
Time: 6 August 2019 | 2 p.m.
Venue: ORSAM Conference Hall
Note: The Program will be in English
Umer Karim's Bio:
The researcher works on Pakistan's evolving political and security environment within its neighbourhood and the Middle East and is a Visiting Research Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute London. He is also a doctoral researcher at the Department of Political Science and International Studies, University of Birmingham. His research focuses on Saudi Arabian Foreign Policy, in particularly its regional rivalry with Iran and the broader geopolitics of the Middle East.
