North Atlantic Treaty Organization—Pakistan relations are the military–to–military relations between

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

and the comprised 30-states military alliance, called

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two N ...

. Over recent years, NATO has developed relations with a range of countries beyond the Euro-Atlantic area, considering Pakistan as "partners across the globe." Lobbied and with a support provided by

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

Secretary of State, General (retired)

Colin Powell Colin Luther Powell ( ; April 5, 1937 – October 18, 2021) was an American politician, statesman, diplomat, and United States Army officer who served as the 65th United States Secretary of State from 2001 to 2005. He was the first Africa ...

, Pakistan is designated as a "

Major non-NATO ally Major non-NATO ally (MNNA) is a designation given by the United States government to close allies that have strategic working relationships with the US Armed Forces but are not members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). While the s ...

" as of 2004. Mutual understanding and cooperation between Pakistan and NATO used to be develops in several main sectors: fighting insurgency and terrorism in

Bosnia Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and Pars pro toto#Geography, often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of Southern Europe, south and southeast Euro ...

and

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is borde ...

, military cooperation, transportation and logistics operations support to Afghanistan, non-proliferation, and others. With the end of the war and China's strong influence in Pakistan, bilateral relations became weaker.

Military relations and understanding

Cooperation on Bosnian War

In 1994, the

Pakistan Armed Forces The Pakistan Armed Forces (; ) are the military forces of Pakistan. It is the world's sixth-largest military measured by active military personnel and consist of three formally uniformed services—the Army, Navy, and the Air Force, which are ...

contingent joined the United Nations Protection Forces in Bosnia (UNPROFOR) to support the NATO's operations during the

Bosnian war The Bosnian War ( sh, Rat u Bosni i Hercegovini / Рат у Босни и Херцеговини) was an international armed conflict that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995. The war is commonly seen as having started ...

. Reviewing and recognizing the commendable performance of the Pakistan Armed Forces Contingents as United Nations peacekeepers in Somalia and Cambodia, the United Nations requested the

Government of Pakistan The Government of Pakistan ( ur, , translit=hakúmat-e pákistán) abbreviated as GoP, is a federal government established by the Constitution of Pakistan as a constituted governing authority of the four provinces, two autonomous territorie ...

to contribute troops to the United Nations Protection Force in Bosnia-Herzegovina. A 3000 strong contingent consisting of two Battalion Groups and a National Support (NS) Headquarters left for Bosnia and Croatia in May 1994. In close coordination with

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

and the

ISI ISI or Isi may refer to: Organizations * Intercollegiate Studies Institute, a classical conservative organization focusing on college students * Ice Skating Institute, a trade association for ice rinks * Indian Standards Institute, former name of ...

headed the

intelligence operations Intelligence has been defined in many ways: the capacity for abstraction, logic, understanding, self-awareness, learning, emotional knowledge, reasoning, planning, creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving. More generally, it can be d ...

to curbed down the insurgency in the Bosnia.

Stability in Afghanistan and Central Asia

In 2007, the

Pakistan military The Pakistan Armed Forces (; ) are the military forces of Pakistan. It is the world's sixth-largest military measured by active military personnel and consist of three formally uniformed services—the Army, Navy, and the Air Force, which are ...

and NATO established the Joint Intelligence Operations Centre (JIOC), a joint initiative designed to improve intelligence coordination between NATO, ISAF and Pakistan, which was opened in Kabul. According to the NATO sources, Pakistan's continuous support for the efforts of NATO and

ISAF ' ps, کمک او همکاري ' , allies = Afghanistan , opponents = Taliban Al-Qaeda , commander1 = , commander1_label = Commander , commander2 = , commander2_label = , commander3 = , command ...

in Afghanistan remains crucial to the success of the NATO's mission. In 2007

state visit A state visit is a formal visit by a head of state to a foreign country, at the invitation of the head of state of that foreign country, with the latter also acting as the official host for the duration of the state visit. Speaking for the host ...

NATO headquarters The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is headquartered in a complex in Haren, part of the City of Brussels municipality of Belgium. The staff at the headquarters is composed of national delegations of NATO member states and includes c ...

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to ...

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is ...

Shaukat Aziz Shaukat Aziz ( ur, ; born 6 March 1949) is a Pakistani former banker and financier who served as 17th prime minister of Pakistan from 28 August 2004 to 15 November 2007, as well as the finance minister of Pakistan from 6 November 1999 to 15 ...

put it:

"Pakistan is committed to a strong, stable Afghanistan. The one country that will benefit the most, after Afghanistan itself, will be Pakistan."

Although Pakistan has expressed reservations with some operational issues, dialogue on Afghanistan once occupied important role with the Alliance.

Conflicts of interest

Salala incident

In 2011, NATO's relations with Pakistan worsen after an unfriendly attack took place in near border; Pakistan responded with suspending all NATO operations, boycotting the

Bonn Conference After Operation Enduring Freedom in which the Taliban government was toppled in Afghanistan, in December 2001, the German city of Bonn hosted a conference – widely known as the Bonn Conference – of Afghan leaders at Hotel Petersberg, to cho ...

and evicting the

US air force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Sig ...

from Shamsi air force base. The squabble was resolved peacefully when

formally apologized to Pakistan. In 2013, the military-to-military relations between NATO and Pakistan were strengthened following NATO's recognition of Pakistan's important role in the region and as enabler to NATO’s Mission in Afghanistan. Airspace violations by NATO aircraft into Pakistan have been a common source of friction between the two parties.

NATO logistics

Currently, there are two main NATO supply routes which cross through Pakistan: one is via

Torkham Torkham (; ps, , translit=tūrxam) is a major border crossing between the Pakistani city of Torkham and Afghanistan, located along the Grand Trunk Road on the international border between the two countries. It connects Nangarhar province of A ...

and the other is via

Chaman Chaman ( Balochi, Pashto and ur, ) is a city and recently claimed as a new district of Balochistan named Chaman District as it was earlier a part of district Qila Abdullah District located on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. It is the capital o ...

. The supply lines have often been blocked in Pakistan owing to differences with NATO over issues such as the Salala incident and the

drone attacks in Pakistan Between 2004 and 2018, the United States government attacked thousands of targets in northwest Pakistan using unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) operated by the United States Air Force under the operational control of the Central Intelligence ...

. In late 2013, the PTI-led government in

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (; ps, خېبر پښتونخوا; Urdu, Hindko: خیبر پختونخوا) commonly abbreviated as KP or KPK, is one of the four provinces of Pakistan. Located in the northwestern region of the country, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa ...

province blocked the Torkham supply line to protest drone attacks in Pakistan. After a request by NATO countries to

Imran Khan Imran Ahmed Khan Niazi ( ur}; born 5 October 1952) is a Pakistani politician and former Cricket captain who served as the 22nd Prime Minister of Pakistan from August 2018 to until April 2022, when he was ousted through a no-confiden ...

to open the route, Khan rejected the request and stated that the blockade would continue until drone attacks are stopped. Since 2008, the NATO supply routes have also been under attack by insurgent groups, and in an incident the same year, ~42 oil tankers were destroyed, and later that same year 300 militants attacked a facility in Peshawar run by Port World Logistics and set fire to 96 supply trucks and six containers.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:NATO-Pakistan relations