Opinion | Afghan retreat: why Pakistan must not agree to a US military base in Balochistan

Name: Afghan interpreters fear for their lives as Nato withdrawal looms
Uploaded: 2021-06-10T17:00:00.000Z
Duration: 2 min 36 s
Description: Afghan interpreters fear for their lives as Nato withdrawal looms

A US base will be deeply unpopular in Pakistan and stress ties with its neighbours. Critically, it will produce a new generation of militants in Pakistan

Reading Time:3 minutes

Why you can trust SCMP

Fire breaking out at a blast site in Quetta, Balochistan, in Pakistan on April 21. The Pakistani Taliban says it is behind the deadly blast in the car park of Serena Hotel. Photo: Xinhua

Abdul Basit

Published: 1:00am, 11 Jun 2021Updated: 2:18am, 11 Jun 2021

As the US withdraws from Afghanistan, its demand for a military base in Pakistan to gather intelligence on groups such as al-Qaeda and Islamic State, and to execute radar surveillance counterterrorism operations on Afghanistan, has left Pakistan in a bind.

Though desperate to maintain its relevance to the US post-Afghanistan, Pakistan cannot afford to alienate China, its partner in the US$62 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. Also, Pakistan cannot afford to antagonise the Afghan Taliban.

After the media leaked news of secret military base negotiations, Washington said the talks are deadlocked, while Islamabad portrayed the impasse as a “no”.

Yet Pakistan has a history of covertly giving military bases to the US. It denied giving the Peshawar Badaber airbase to the US in the 1960s until Russia shot down a US surveillance plane that took off from it.

It also denied giving the US the Shamsi airbase until the 2011 Nato attack in a US-led clash killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, and an unhappy Pakistan expelled US forces from Shamsi. Given this history, few are taking Pakistan’s denial seriously.

02:36

Afghan interpreters fear for their lives as Nato withdrawal looms

Giving the US a military base in the southwestern Balochistan province will have far-reaching political, diplomatic and security implications for Pakistan.