History

Pakistan's Relations with

USSR
Muhammad Absar
 Introduction
The relations of Pakistan and USSR
have remained both good and bad.
We did many agreements with USSR,
and it also aided us at many
occasions, but mostly we remained
at its apposing side, on the side of
USA.
This presentation will cover both
successful and unsuccessful relations
of Pakistan with this country.
Geographical location of
USSR

As it could be seen, Russia is

located to the north of Pakistan,
but they do not share a direct
land border.
 In the late 1940s, Pakistan tried to have friendship
with USA, but it was busy in its alliance with India.
Successful Therefore, this encouraged the Soviet Union to
have an alliance with Pakistan. The Soviet Union
relations invited Liaqat Ali Khan to Moscow, however USA
interfered and invited him to Washington. Liaqat
Ali Khan chose USA, however, this shows that USSR
was interested in alliance with Pakistan.
Despite many difficulties and
problems in this alliance, USSR
made sure that it wants to have
good relations with Pakistan. It
offered government aid to
Pakistan, for example in 1972,
USSR built a steel mill in Pakistan,
which helped in stabilizing the
economy of Pakistan a lot.
As the relations of Pakistan deteriorated with
USA I960-70, there was improvement in the
relations with Soviet Union. In 1961, as a gesture
of goodwill, USSR began searching oil in
Pakistan. In 1963, Pakistan grew closer to USSR,
because its relations with USA demolished due
to the Indo China war.
•In 1963, Soviet Union further decided to
ally up with Pakistan. China was already
aiding Pakistan, and USSR took it even
further by loaning 11 million pounds to
Pakistan, which helped Pakistan a lot. In
the same year, USSR also changed its open
support to India over the Kashmir issue, to
a neutral side. It was a huge relief to
Pakistan.
•In the Indo-Pakistan 1965 war, the Soviet
Union decided to remain neutral, which
saved Pakistan a lot of troubles.
•In January 1966, USSR hosted a peace conference between India and Pakistan at
Tashkent, which impressed Pakistani representatives a lot.
Unsuccessful Relations
• The Soviet Union had been
backing up India over the matter
of Kashmir, instead of being
neutral. This prove to be a
problem to Pakistan, as USSR was
just very close to the Northern
borders. Therefore, the relations
of Pakistan and USSR remained
unsuccessful.
• When Pakistan joined SEATO (South
Asia Treaty Organization) and CENTO
(Central Treaty Organization) in the mid
1950s the soviet union took it as a firm
declaration in the favor of USA. The
Soviet Union warned Pakistan
government that it was allowing it to be
used as an American base.
•In 1955, the Soviet Union officially
backed India in Kashmir and Soviet
leaders visited India. They declared
whole-hearted support for the Indian
claim to Kashmir and began to give India
economic and technical assistance (the
USA was already providing military and
economic aid to Pakistan).
•In the same year, the Soviet Union also
began to press Pakistan over the Afghan
claims in 'Pakhtoonistan'.
In May 1960, relations reached a
low point when a spy plane from
the US base in Peshawar was shot
down over the Soviet Union. The
Pakistan government denied any
knowledge of American spying, but
the Soviet government did not
accept this.
•However, at this point relations with the Soviet Union worsened. The
Soviet government was not happy with the fact that Pakistan was accepting aid, and
arms, from both China and the USA, as well as from the Soviet Union. When Pakistan
helped to arrange a China-US agreement in 1971, the Soviet Union was annoyed as it
implied a special relationship between the USA, China and Pakistan. Consequently the
Soviet Union signed a Treaty of Peace, Friendship and Cooperation with India,
guaranteeing Soviet help if India went to war with Pakistan. This was the low point of
relations with the Soviet Union, and coincided with the Civil war and the break away of
East Pakistan
•The Soviet occupation of Afghanistan
in 1979 caused an open rift when
Pakistan accepted American aid to
support the mujahideen rebels.
Although Zia visited Moscow in 1984
for the funeral of Andropov he got a
cold reception. Later that year the
Soviet Union, which also disapproved
of Pakistan's nuclear program, began
bombing raids on Pakistan. Hostile
relations continued until 1988, when
the Soviets finally withdrew from
Afghanistan.
This picture shows Liaqat Ali Khan while
he was visiting USA, Although he was also
invited by USSR. This shows that USSR
wanted to have good relations with us,
but USA didn't.
Tashkent agreement
being signed.
A russian cartoonist drew this to show that US
were hiding behind their real intentions.
Ayub Khan's visit to
USSR
My Personal Point Of
View

In my opinion, Pakistan's relations with

USSR were both good and bad. Even
though they supported Pakistan's
opponents such as India many times,
most of the time, they wanted to have
good alliance with Pakistan, but USA
interfered. In my opinion, if we would
have made good relations with them, we
would have been developed a lot. One
example is Pakistan Steel Mill. But
considering the history, the relations were
mostly unsuccessful.