Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao’s visit to Pakistan

"Landep News" 

Adil Najam

A good picture, they say, can be worth a thousand words. A good number can be worth millions. Even billions. In this case, 15 billion. And that is counting dollars, not words.

The number, of course, is the value of business deals being finalized during Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao’s visit to Pakistan. There are many versions of the numbers out there. Some think the number is $20 billion, others maybe more, and this being Pakistan media some are adding all the different estimates together. But none of that matters much, what is a billion here or there between friends!

But the real point is that no matter how you look at it, even the lowest estimate – US$15 billion – is one very impressive number. The even bigger point is that this is a number coming from someone who is clearly seen as a friend and therefore is seen so very different from how gifts borne by those who one does not trust are viewed.

Those, to me, are the real stories behind this number. The story of a powerful and dependable friend; maybe the only one for Pakistan. The story of a stable and sustainable international relationship; maybe the only one for Pakistan. The story of a sensible and reasonable interests-based basis for an international relationship; maybe the only one for Pakistan.

I am, of course and like most Pakistanis, a fan of the Pakistan-China relationship. There is much that we Pakistanis can ourselves learn from this relationship about why our other relationships have turned out to be so very different. There is also much that our other international partners – in particular the United States – can learn from this relationship about why their offerings have received such different responses from Pakistan (the obvious case would be the $7.5 Billion Kerry Lugar Bill that got half as much money into Pakistan and gave the US that many times more angst and such a different reception).

If we ourselves in Pakistan can learn the lessons inherent in this relationship and begin applying them to our other relationships, the value of that would, at least to me, be worth even more than the $15 billion we are now talking about. But can we learn those lessons? Have we ever?

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