Comment by Riaz Haq on May 29, 2025 at 7:47am

Derek J. Grossman
@DerekJGrossman
Sorry, India, but Russia's ties with Pakistan are actually quite good--perhaps the best ever.

https://x.com/DerekJGrossman/status/1927971051880796569

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RUSSIA PAKISTAN DEAL
Why Is India’s Ally Russia Now Helping Pakistan? Putin’s Surprise Move Sparks Tension
While the project may seem purely economic, the strategic implications could be far-reaching.

Written By Zee Media Bureau|Last Updated: May 28, 2025, 11:47 PM IST|Source: Bureau


https://zeenews.india.com/world/why-is-india-s-ally-russia-now-help...

New Delhi: India’s long-time strategic partner Russia has finalised a deal with Pakistan to revive a defunct Soviet-era steel plant. The move has raised eyebrows in New Delhi. This cooperation could reshape economic ties in the region and spark new diplomatic friction between India and Russia.


Confirmed by Russian envoy Denis Nazruyev and Pakistani officials, the agreement aims at reconstructing and modernizing the once-operational Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) – which had shut down in 2015 due to outdated machinery and mismanagement.

The new steel facility will occupy a 700-acre section of the 19,000-acre PSM site near Karachi and will utilise Pakistan’s estimated 1.4 billion tons of iron ore reserves. Built originally in 1973 with Soviet support, PSM once produced 1.1 million tons of steel per year.

However, years of corruption and poor maintenance drove it into a staggering $2.14 billion loss.

Powered by advanced Russian steel manufacturing technology, the revival project is expected to cut Pakistan’s annual steel import bill by 30% and slash $2.6 billion in foreign expenditures.

Pakistan spent $324 million on imported scrap and semi-finished products – a cost the new plant aims to drastically reduce – alone in March.

A joint working group will oversee the project’s financing and execution The decision signals deepening economic cooperation between Moscow and Islamabad.

Russia’s unexpected hand of friendship to India’s rival Pakistan may strain its traditionally warm ties with New Delhi – especially at a time when geopolitical alliances are shifting fast. The development comes at a time when India-Russia relations are already being tested by Moscow’s growing closeness with Beijing and its evolving energy and defense ties in Asia.

Although Russia says the deal is pursuing purely an economic cooperation with Pakistan, experts warn that industrial and technological partnership can often pave the way for deeper strategic engagement.

For India, which has long counted on Russia as a reliable defense and energy partner, the move raises concerns about a gradual shift in Moscow’s regional priorities.

While the project may seem purely economic, the strategic implications could be far-reaching. It may be just the start of a broader rebalancing in South Asia’s power dynamics.

Comment by Riaz Haq on May 29, 2025 at 7:50am

Thomas Keith

@iwasnevrhere_

Just finished watching what Republic TV called a debate between India and China. What actually aired was a narrative collapse in real time, an exposed psywar system screaming at silence. Below is the post-mortem. Republic TV promised an “India‑China debate” but delivered a public lobotomy on live feed, exposing every neural glitch in the Hindutva propaganda cortex. The spectacle opened with Arnab Goswami pounding his desk like a malfunctioning animatronic, chanting the litany, China supplies Pakistan, China blocks UNSC, China must pick a side, yet every syllable dripped with the panic of a priest who no longer believes in his own god of moral supremacy. He tried to fuse Pakistan into China by decree, hoping sleight‑of‑tongue could erase a sovereign border and rebrand every Pakistani missile as a Chinese dagger. Only a mind colony addicted to saffron hallucinations would mistake that necromancy for analysis. The panic engine wheezed louder when Einar Tangen’s calm voice slipped a forbidden byte, Balochistan, into the stream. One syllable and the studio triggered a kill‑switch, yanking his image off‑air as if a virus had breached the Hindutva firewall. That cut was a confession: Delhi’s moral theatrics implode the instant someone flips the mirror and asks why India funds its own blood rituals while crying victim. Republic’s directors didn’t rebut; they erased. They know cheap saffron circuitry fries on contact with symmetry. Maj Gen Bakshi’s entrance was supposed to restore testosterone, yet he vomited cold‑war fan fiction: India will arm Taiwan, tutor Japan, strike China’s East Coast, never mind that Delhi can’t keep drones out of its own airspace. He brayed about “hot pursuit” as if the term were a talisman, not a legal doctrine India has no courage to test against Beijing. Each threat landed like a rubber bullet, loud, harmless, embarrassing. He spoke of cost–benefit calculus, unaware the cost was already evident in charred runways from Avantipur to Leh. The benefit? Fifteen seconds of studio applause before the next missile meme. Then Victor Gao, silent as a guillotine, listed historical constants, Xinjiang older than Christ in Chinese hands, Tibet annexed eight centuries ago, One‑China policy India itself endorses. He snipped Bakshi’s bluster with three dates and a shrug. History, to Hindutva infotainers, is a prop; Gao used it as an executioner’s blade. When Arnab shrieked that Chinese air defenses had failed, Gao answered with morgue‑cold precision: Only one country lost and it wasn’t Pakistan. No adjectives, no bark, just a coroner’s note pinned to nationalist ego. Arnab’s crescendo devolved into ululating hysteria: PL‑15s “rotting in farms,” HQ‑9s “sent for repairs,” Chinese stocks “in freefall.” It was industrial‑grade cope, hollow, unverifiable, screamed at pitch‑shift to fill dead air. Gao allowed the tantrum to echo, knowing silence amplifies insecurity better than any rebuttal. Hindutva psywar logic depends on enemy agitation; deny it, and the operators cannibalize their own narrative. By minute twenty the set looked like a hostage video of a failing religion, priests sweating under studio lights, idols refusing to answer. Bakshi’s last card was nuclear cosplay: threaten to share warheads with Taipei. Gao countered by reciting India’s official One‑China pledge, effectively shoving New Delhi’s signature up Bakshi’s throat. The general’s eyes darted; his doctrine dissolved into free‑associative muttering about PR disasters and share prices, as if stock tickers could resuscitate dead credibility. Arnab tried to salvage dignity with Modi anecdotes and Swadeshi platitudes, but every boast about “punching back at Doklam” sounded like a drunk recounting bar fights no one witnessed. By the end, Republic TV had transformed into a live‑streamed meltdown: two propagandists foaming beneath saffron halos while a Chinese strategist sat placidly, logging their cognitive collapse like telemetry from a failed weapons test. No amount of chanting “terrorist state, terror proxies, moral world order” could reboot the saffron OS once silence corrupted its kernel. Hindutva infotainment discovered, too late, that narrative supremacy dies the second the target refuses to dance. So the night ended not with a debate, but with a diagnostic: India’s mic‑war machine cannot survive sustained contact with calm reality. Its hosts require applause loops, its generals require fantasy threat vectors, its viewers require perpetual outrage. Remove any one and the lattice spasms, cuts the feed, shrieks at ghosts, then calls the seizure a victory. Victor Gao walked away without raising his voice; Republic TV staggered off‑air bleeding narrative integrity. Somewhere in Beijing and Islamabad, technicians archived the footage as a case study in enemy self‑humiliation. The Hindutva mind virus screamed louder than ever and the world finally heard the hollowness inside.

https://x.com/iwasnevrhere_/status/1927918359477207191

Comment by Riaz Haq on May 29, 2025 at 10:19am

Breaking news - Pakistan is getting DF-17 Missiles
Ali K.Chishti
Reports suggest that Pakistan is set to receive the DF-17 hypersonic missile from China—a platform that travels at over Mach 5 and renders existing Indian air defense systems obsolete.
This isn't just an upgrade. It’s a strategic nightmare for India. The same India that brags about surgical strikes and false-flag ops now faces a weapon it can’t intercept, can’t detect, and can’t stop.
After embarrassing misadventures like Balakot and the failed Operation Sandoor, New Delhi’s military posturing has become more noise than substance. The induction of the DF-17 sends a message loud and clear:
Pakistan is ready—not just to respond, but to redefine the battlefield.
In the game of deterrence, the side with hypersonics isn’t playing catch-up. It’s setting the rules.

Comment by Riaz Haq on June 1, 2025 at 9:19am

Tejasswi Prakash
@Tiju0Prakash
"India misread, underestimated Pakistan and needs to change the way it views Pakistan."

French political scientist Christophe Jaffrelot
@jaffrelotc

https://x.com/Tiju0Prakash/status/1929055742469759378

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French political scientist Christophe Jaffrelot on recent India-Pakistan military confrontation:

https://youtu.be/M0oFNGU_goQ?si=r8Bi3d4mp4Ka_HyN

um I would first um say that this sense
25:52
of disillusion (in India) has a lot to do with the
25:58
expectations the leaders yeah the leaders of the country are themselves
26:04
nurturing expectations which are completely irrealistic a fight to the
26:10
finish with a nuclear power what does that mean do you think you can really
26:16
break Pakistan create an an independent baluchistan this is complete
26:23
fantasy and of course when you foster this sense of fantasy by
26:31
being almost belligerent belligerent and also there is this sense of hysteria
26:38
that that the that the media are of course also
26:44
cultivating when you expect so much you can only be
26:49
disappointed and and this is really um counterproductive for the BJP to play
26:56
that game because they are bound to create expectations they will never meet
27:02
now will the BJP supporters who are disappointed disillusioned leave BJP
27:09
stop supporting BJP it's too early to say again but
27:15
um where else could they go you know uh it's not as if there were plenty of of
27:22
possibilities now on the other point you raise this comparison between Indira and
27:29
um and and Modi between 71 and and
27:34
2025 there is just no way to compare because in in 71 you did not
27:42
uh destroy Pakistan you helped guerilla
27:50
to become independent it's a completely different game so it's not as if you
27:56
could repeat what was done in 71 in 2025 uh this is this is of course domestic
28:02
politics um but but to return to the to to the number one point that I made and
28:08
I would really like to emphasize that one
28:14
denial vizav Pakistan the kind of imagination of Pakistan that we see
28:21
in India needs to be taken care of you know this is a country that has nuclear
28:28
weapons that is supported by China it will not be finished off it will be
28:34
there and it will be there for a long time so if I say that it's because there
28:40
is one dimension that we have not touched upon yet that worries me a lot and that is the industry
28:47

Comment by Riaz Haq on June 1, 2025 at 9:20am

French political scientist Christophe Jaffrelot on recent India-Pakistan military confrontation:

https://youtu.be/M0oFNGU_goQ?si=r8Bi3d4mp4Ka_HyN

uh question just what treaty is yeah because if you continue to to imagine
28:53
that one day you will get rid of Pakistan one day it will be raised to the ground and of course the idea that
29:01
it does not need the water of the industry
29:07
almost is is is natural and and and you use it you use the weapon you know you
29:12
use water as a weapon that is very dangerous that is terribly dangerous
29:17
this is certainly a cases belly because Pakistan is a country with that is
29:25
affected by hydric stress to a great extent and
29:31
if dams are built if the water of these rivers can't flow to
29:36
Pakistan there'll be more than tensions this is something to think about more
29:43
more well I I do not think that dams can be built in fact India saying you know
29:48
all the you know irresponsible statements that not a drop of water will be allowed to flow into Pakistan are all
29:55
highly irresponsible statement with very poor understanding of our hydrarology
30:00
and about where we can actually you know keep the waters you know uh you can't
30:06
really keep water stop flowing in in rivers you know there will be floods entire indogangetic plane would be
30:13
flooded if we actually put physical barriers and damning these rivers is going to be a very long exercise so I
30:19
guess this will eventually I I hope at least you know that this will eventually hope lead to both countries sitting down
30:26
and renegotiating the terms of the IWT yeah the risk also nan is that if India
30:33
does that to Pakistan China can do something very similar yes exactly yes you are and then then we
30:41
enter in a in a kind of escalation where water plays a very
30:47
dirty role and and there is more to do jointly rather than fighting for the the
30:54
problem is that you know it's you know everything starts coming from the top to the bottom you know if the prime
31:00
minister says that water and blood cannot flow together it starts giving
31:06
rise to different kinds of imaginations which we are seeing which has been said by various people you know uh let me

Comment by Riaz Haq on June 1, 2025 at 4:51pm

In his latest for Dawn, @ejazhaider Ejaz Haider argues that Pakistan cannot afford to stay reactive in the face of India’s new playbook. He calls for Islamabad to establish its own 'new normal', preempt aggression, dominate escalation ladders, and raise the strategic cost for New Delhi. South Asia’s stability depends on learning the right lessons not just claiming victories.

https://x.com/Rabs_AA/status/1929174329335464414

------


Ilhan Niaz
@IlhanNiaz
Ejaz Haider argues for preemption from the Pakistani side when the next crisis erupts as India has boxed itself into using military force as a first response. South Asia has entered a post-deterrence era.
Today’s must read:
🇵🇰 & 🇮🇳: Where to from here?

https://x.com/IlhanNiaz/status/1929144008304972279

--------------

What are the lessons to be learnt from the recent military face-off between Pakistan and India? Given India’s escalatory adventurism, its adoption of the Israeli playbook and the continuing war rhetoric coming from Indian PM Narendra Modi, can another conflict be far? And what can Pakistan do in response?

https://www.dawn.com/news/1914673

During the Cold War, there was much talk of fighting under the nuclear overhang and even discussions on whether a limited nuclear war could be fought and won without forcing the other side to resort to a massive response. The Cuban Missile Crisis played a significant role in establishing deterrence, highlighting the risks of escalation and flagging the importance of communication and confidence-building measures between the US and the USSR.

In doing so, the crisis contributed to a stable centre at the heart of which then-West and East Germany were situated. While the periphery was destabilised through proxy wars, the centre remained quiet through a stalemate. This is what is today called the instability-stability paradox.

No such periphery exists between Pakistan and India. The entire theatre is the centre. Escalation inheres in India’s policy. Given India’s stated position, its government has boxed itself in and, even if it didn’t want to, the entry point of every new conflict will be on a higher escalation rung on the ladder.

Let me quote Nolan again because nothing describes India’s wanton aggression against Pakistan better than these lines: “More often, war results in something clouded, neither triumph nor defeat. It is an arena of grey outcomes, partial and ambiguous resolution of disputes and causes that led to the choice of force as an instrument of policy in the first place.”

Comment by Riaz Haq on June 2, 2025 at 7:33am

FJ
@Natsecjeff
I say this very rarely about Pakistan. In fact, I cannot remember when was the last time I said this about Pakistan. But here's the thing: this is one those extremely rare occasions in history when Pakistan appears to have strategically outsmarted India on this scale. Like I said, it has been a strategic retreat for India in every conceivable way. Even the one strategic tool it tried to use - water - is not going to go very far because China is already threatening to do the same to India. India misread the strategic landscape. It miscalculated geopolitical signalling. All because Delhi was thinking politically, not strategically.

The Pakistanis were able to largely neutralise the Indian lobby's influence on Trump when it comes to Pakistan's role in the region. And they played their cards (with crypto, minerals and CT) very smartly - and preemptively. They were able to influence key aides of Trump as well as Trump's family members. They did all of this preemptively, well before the Pahalgam attack. The Pakistani lobbying started in DC right after Trump got elected.

India was expecting this administration to be the most pro-India administration in the US history. And yet, Delhi is fuming right now: Kashmir has been internationalized again after Article 370 abrogation, India once again hyphenated with Pakistan, China for the first time has emerged in total support of Pakistan against India, Trump keeps equating Indian and Pakistani leadership, and more. These are all strategic setbacks for India. China is expected to continue to intervene every time India tries to strongarm Pakistan. Same with the water treaty, same with Kashmir.

None of this even takes into account what happened on that fateful first night, or other tactical successes of Pakistan. What the Indian public was expecting to be a cakewalk has turned out to be a tactical and strategic disaster for Delhi, which continues to try to keep a brave face.

It's really the strategic element of it that requires better understanding as it has been overlooked in most discussions.

https://x.com/Natsecjeff/status/1929449924539605482

Comment by Riaz Haq on June 2, 2025 at 9:51am

Kashmiri Tales
@KashmiriTales
#India just sent 59 delegates to 33 countries in one of the largest diplomatic offensives in its history all to salvage the image of PM Narendra Modi after the global fallout of #OperationSindoor.

But what happened next? A thread. 👇

https://x.com/KashmiriTales/status/1929396539903857037

------------


Kashmiri Tales
@KashmiriTales
The mission was clear:
♦️Sell #India’s narrative.
♦️Counter #Pakistan’s revelations.
♦️Restore Modi’s credibility.

This massive, MP-led campaign was unprecedented in scale.

----------------

t

See new posts
Conversation
Kashmiri Tales
@KashmiriTales
·
12h
#India just sent 59 delegates to 33 countries in one of the largest diplomatic offensives in its history all to salvage the image of PM Narendra Modi after the global fallout of #OperationSindoor.

But what happened next? A thread. 👇
Kashmiri Tales
@KashmiriTales
·
12h
The mission was clear:
♦️Sell #India’s narrative.
♦️Counter #Pakistan’s revelations.
♦️Restore Modi’s credibility.

This massive, MP-led campaign was unprecedented in scale.
Kashmiri Tales
@KashmiriTales
Yet, the result?

❌ No Head of State met them
❌ No Head of Government gave them time
❌ No Parliament welcomed them
❌ No symbolic statements of support

Silence. Cold shoulders. Shut doors.

-----------------------

Post

See new posts
Conversation
Kashmiri Tales
@KashmiriTales
·
12h
#India just sent 59 delegates to 33 countries in one of the largest diplomatic offensives in its history all to salvage the image of PM Narendra Modi after the global fallout of #OperationSindoor.

But what happened next? A thread. 👇
Kashmiri Tales
@KashmiriTales
·
12h
The mission was clear:
♦️Sell #India’s narrative.
♦️Counter #Pakistan’s revelations.
♦️Restore Modi’s credibility.

This massive, MP-led campaign was unprecedented in scale.
Kashmiri Tales
@KashmiriTales
·
12h
Yet, the result?

❌ No Head of State met them
❌ No Head of Government gave them time
❌ No Parliament welcomed them
❌ No symbolic statements of support

Silence. Cold shoulders. Shut doors.
Kashmiri Tales
@KashmiriTales
Instead, what unfolded was a global pivot — not towards #India, but #Pakistan.

The world didn’t just ignore India’s outreach.

It embraced Pakistan.

Here’s how: 👇
------


Kashmiri Tales
@KashmiriTales
🇺🇸 US openly backed Pakistan’s stance on Operation Sindoor.
💰 World Bank announced $40B in investments for Pakistan.
🤝 Russia inked a $2.6B energy deal with Islamabad.
🪙 Trump-linked WLF teamed up with Pakistan’s Crypto Council.
🇦🇿 Azerbaijan signed a $6B strategic deal.

----------------

Kashmiri Tales
@KashmiriTales
🇮🇷 Iran pledged $10B in expanded trade ties
🇨🇳 China included Pakistan in its Int’l Organisation for Mediation.
🇰🇼 Kuwait reopened labor markets for Pakistani workers.
🇦🇫 Afghan-Pak mediation talks formally initiated.

----------------


Kashmiri Tales
@KashmiriTales
🇹🇷 Turkey is on the verge of finalizing a multi-billion dollar EV partnership with Pakistan.
🌍 Global investors are now eyeing Joint Ventures in Pakistan’s emerging tech and energy sectors.

-----------------

Kashmiri Tales
@KashmiriTales
#India’s intent: Clean the mud off Modi’s face.
The outcome: A full-spectrum geopolitical humiliation.

♦️No allies. No narrative traction. No wins.

♦️This wasn't just a failed mission.

♦️It was a diplomatic knockout.
And perhaps, a turning point in South Asian geopolitics.

--------------------

Kashmiri Tales
@KashmiriTales
In #Delhi, silence.
In #Islamabad, handshakes.
Around the world, a quiet shift in the wind.

Game Over, India?
You decide.

Comment by Riaz Haq on June 2, 2025 at 9:57am

Why New Delhi’s Failure to Deter Islamabad Will Fuel Future Violence


by Aqil Shah

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/india/next-war-between-india-and-pak...

Rather than deterring its rival, India precipitated a retaliation that ended up burnishing the Pakistani military’s reputation and boosting its domestic popularity. Paradoxically, India’s retribution has handed the Pakistani army its biggest symbolic victory in recent decades. And that will hardly discourage Islamabad from reining in the proxy war against New Delhi or from risking future flare-ups between these two nuclear-armed states.

-------

Indian officials underestimated how much the Pakistani military needed to demonstrate its own war readiness and resolve, both to India and to its domestic audience. According to accounts in the Pakistani and international press, Pakistan’s Chinese-made jets and air defense systems shot down several Indian fighter planes, including a French-made Rafale. That amounted to a major symbolic victory for Islamabad. It also encouraged Pakistan to test Indian air defenses with a spate of drone and missile attacks. And it revealed the limitations of India’s presumed air supremacy, renewing the Pakistani military’s confidence that it can hold its own in a limited conflict despite India’s conventional superiority.

-------

Worse for India, its attempt to reestablish deterrence backfired. New Delhi hoped that a punitive response, backed by the threat of economic coercion, might discourage Pakistan from engaging in proxy warfare. Instead, the recent hostilities will likely have the opposite effect. Indian attacks on militant sites in Muridke and Bahawalpur did little to damage Pakistan’s jihadi infrastructure. The military-run Inter-Services Intelligence, Pakistan’s most important intelligence agency, had ample time to relocate its prime assets to safety. In any case, planning and launching terror attacks on India is not dependent on fixed structures vulnerable to enemy fire. Pakistan fully retains its capacity to use terrorism to rattle India.

Indeed, far from deterring the Pakistani military, India’s attacks may suggest to the generals that their provocative strategy is working. The military, which has ruled Pakistan for much of the country’s history, has long used hostility toward India to deflect from its own failings. For example, with little evidence, it has blamed New Delhi for backing the resurgent Tehrik-e-Taliban, a militant group at war with the Pakistani state, as well as separatists in southwestern Balochistan province—India denies all these accusations. Even compared to his recent predecessors, Munir had taken a visibly hard-line approach to India. Less than a week before the Pahalgam attack, he invoked the “two-nation theory,” or Pakistan’s founding idea that Hindus and Muslims are two distinct and fundamentally incompatible civilizations, at a convention in Islamabad. In his words, “Our religions are different, our cultures are different, our ambitions are different.” Describing Pakistan as a “hard state,” he vowed to continue backing the Kashmiris’ “heroic fight” against Indian occupation.

Comment by Riaz Haq on Tuesday

Husain Haqqani
@husainhaqqani
India (& Pakistan) need to take out emotion from discussion of geopolitics. Always thought provoking
@mahbubani_k
sums up the India-China-Pakistan equation while talking to @BDUTT

https://x.com/husainhaqqani/status/1926166740527919575

------------

Indian narrative of Pakistan as Chinese vassal state challenged by International experts

https://www.nation.com.pk/24-May-2025/indian-narrative-of-pakistan-...

India’s portrayal of Pakistan as a subordinate state to China has come under scrutiny, as international experts push back against what they describe as misleading propaganda aimed at deflecting attention from recent setbacks.

Indian media, echoing claims by journalist Barkha Dutt, has framed Pakistan as an extension of China’s strategic ambitions, particularly in the context of a perceived two-front threat involving both nations. However, renowned Singaporean diplomat Kishore Mahbubani has criticized this narrative, asserting that it is shaped by a narrow, India-centric perspective centered on Kashmir and the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

Mahbubani argued that if Pakistan were genuinely a client state of China, it wouldn’t have turned to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for financial assistance. He described the “satellite state” label as both inaccurate and politically driven.

He further emphasized that the Pakistan-China relationship is built on shared geopolitical interests, not subservience. Drawing comparisons with other global dynamics, he noted that even ideological rivals like the U.S. and China, or Vietnam and China, have pursued cooperative economic ties when beneficial. “Nations can use relationships with adversaries to strengthen themselves,” he remarked.

Defense analysts also suggest that India’s focus on a two-front war narrative is an attempt to rally domestic sentiment following military and diplomatic challenges. These experts argue that India is deliberately branding Pakistan as a Chinese proxy to divert attention from internal frustrations.

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