Pakistan’s Deepening Involvement in the Gulf

Pakistan’s economic, cultural and military engagement with the Gulf, and Saudi Arabia in particular, goes back decades. In recent years, these relationships have deepened and intensified. Pakistan’s economic dependence on the Gulf Arab states has grown while these states have become ever more reliant strategically on Pakistan. Upwards of $10 billion in trade was registered last year with Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar, and an economically struggling Pakistan relies heavily on loans and the remittances of its roughly 3.7 million expatriate workers in the Gulf. Pakistan is in turn increasingly involved in providing for the domestic security of these countries and has become more openly the Kingdom’s endgame. Among the questions this panel will answer are: how does Pakistan consider the intensifying Saudi-Iranian rivalry in its foreign policy? How might Pakistan be uniquely positioned to serve as a conflict mediator in the Gulf and Yemen?