Imran Khan’s Praise Of Indian MEA Jaishankar Is Consistent With His Multipolar Worldview

This praise, for as surprising as it might superficially appear among those from afar who haven’t closely followed former Prime Minister Khan, is fully consistent with his multipolar worldview and isn’t the first time that he used India as an example for showing what principled neutrality in the Ukrainian Conflict should look like in practice.

Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, who was ousted in early April as a result of a US-orchestrated post-modern regime change designed to punish him for his independent foreign policy (especially its Eurasian dimension), praised Indian Minister of External Affairs Subrahmanyam Jaishankar during a major rally in Lahore on Saturday. He lauded that rival state’s top diplomat for reminding the West that the world doesn’t revolve around it while speaking at the Slovakian GLOBSEC think tank in early June when he pushed back against their criticism of his country’s oil purchases from Russia. For maximum effect, the former premier played a brief video clip of Jaishankar’s remarks.

They were preceded by him saying that “If India, which got independence at the same time as Pakistan - if New Delhi can take a firm stand and make their foreign policy as per the needs of its people, then who are they [Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s government] who are towing the line? They [the US] ordered India not to buy oil from Russia. India is the US’s strategic ally. Pakistan is not. Let us see what India’s foreign minister said when the US asked them not to buy Russian oil.” The ousted leader then added right after the clip that “Jaishankar is telling them ‘who are you?’ Jaishankar said that ‘Europe is buying gas from Russia and we will buy it as people need it.’ This is what an independent country is.”

This praise, for as surprising as it might superficially appear among those from afar who haven’t closely followed former Prime Minister Khan, is fully consistent with his multipolar worldview and isn’t the first time that he used India as an example for showing what principled neutrality in the Ukrainian Conflict should look like in practice. Although his country’s post-modern coup authorities still officially adhere to this policy with respect to not condemning or sanctioning Russia, they’ve nevertheless informally frozen talks with that Eurasian Great Power on the Pakistan Stream Gas Pipeline (PSGP) megaproject that was supposed to serve as the flagship for making their rapidly improving ties truly strategic.

Both the Russian Foreign Ministry and President Putin himself expressed optimism about the future of their relations, though the first-mentioned arguably hinted that it’s aware of the external pressures being put upon Pakistan that have resulted in their previously rapid rapprochement stalling but is willing to wait until Islamabad is comfortable enough to resume everything. Be that as it may, former Prime Minister Khan – being the proud Pakistani patriot that he is (which isn’t in any way connected to being “anti-American” like his opponents have falsely tried to smear him as) – is displeased since he continues to insist that his team would never have halted cooperation with Russia on the US’ orders.

It's for this reason why he regularly uses India as an example of a US strategic partner that bravely defied that declining unipolar hegemon’s demands in order to pursue its objective national interests. This contrasts with the post-modern coup authorities who he accuses of unilaterally conceding on Pakistan’s objective national interests, not to mention without having received anything in return. One of the trends of the emerging Multipolar World Order is the rise of truly sovereign states that proudly stand apart from the remainder of their peers who serve as vassals for someone else, but the hard-earned sovereignty the former premier built has been eroded by those who replaced him.

His opponents are trying to spin his latest praise of Jaishankar as supposedly being contrary to his country’s objective national interests simply because he’s the top diplomat of a rival state, though that’s nothing but a perception management campaign aimed at gaslighting the public, and thus being akin to waging Hybrid Warfare/Fifth Generational Warfare (5GW) against their own people. The truth is that former Prime Minister Khan’s latest remarks aren’t against Pakistan’s national interests, but are fully in line with them, since such are objectively multipolar in the sense of strengthening his country’s sovereignty and not allowing it to fall into vassalhood status like his replacements are doing.