https://www.scmp.com/rss/328825/feed Arif Rafiq (@arifcrafiq) is a non-resident fellow at the Middle East Institute and president of Vizier Consulting, LLC, a political risk advisory company focused on the Middle East and South Asia. He is author of The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor: Barriers and Impact en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com During his Oval Office meeting with Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday, United States President Donald Trump characteristically abandoned the script and hailed the Pakistani leader as “great” and “tough”, even promising to help get the former cricketer re-elected. Clearly, the tortured, roller coaster US-Pakistan relationship is back on. The new bilateral bargain seems to be this: if Islamabad can deliver Washington an honourable exit from Afghanistan that addresses its main... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3019948/why-warmer-us-pakistan-relationship-win-china?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3019948/why-warmer-us-pakistan-relationship-win-china?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 24 Jul 2019 12:00:15 +0000 Make no mistake. The India-Pakistan crisis prompted by the February 14 militant attack on Indian paramilitary forces in Kashmir is far from over. Even if the two countries have – for now – resisted escalating hostilities following air strikes on each other’s territories, the situation could scarcely be more serious. That two nuclear power states have engaged in military action against one another marks the first step along a path of escalation that – in a worst-case scenario – could result in... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/2188316/india-pakistan-crisis-dont-be-fooled-nuclear-war-one-step-closer?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/2188316/india-pakistan-crisis-dont-be-fooled-nuclear-war-one-step-closer?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 02 Mar 2019 01:17:24 +0000 Pakistan faces another balance of payments crisis and may again head to the International Monetary Fund for help. China and its Belt and Road Initiative have been blamed – unfairly – for the crisis, but the real culprit is poor economic policymaking. Pakistan’s economy grew by 5.7 per cent in the previous financial year, but has been unbalanced. A rise in fuel and machinery imports has overlapped with a net decline in exports in the past five years. Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves have... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/asia/article/2166234/china-didnt-cause-pakistans-financial-crisis-it-should?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/asia/article/2166234/china-didnt-cause-pakistans-financial-crisis-it-should?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 30 Sep 2018 06:00:45 +0000