Russia and Pakistan: Strategic Drivers of the Partnership at the Cusp of Shifting Global Order

The world that we used to know just a few decades ago represented an equation with

variables on both sides whereas the conflicting geopolitical poles were trying to use inverse

operations to group all the hard power variables on one side of the equation and all regular

numbers (constants) of the soft power on the opposite sides. That was an era of the unipolar

world decline.

Nowadays we have reached a turning point of the global order. Isolating the variable for

finding a solution is not actual anymore. The Russia-Ukraine conflict inspired by the West and

NATO, US-Israel aggression against Iran, – these are the features of the changing geopolitical

landscape in the world affairs.

While designing an insight of the emerging security architecture of the global order it is

important to consider one of the most treacherous risk to be dealt with: summing up all the errors

and bottlenecks of the outdated strategy of conflict that has been prevailing during unipolar

world era in the Western hemisphere and its thoughtless transfer into domain of the Global

South; reviving the historically painful narratives between the states in the South Asia and

Middle East, igniting fuel of terrorism, extremism, religious and ethnic strives, detaching one

country from another, depriving one nation after another by the false ideas and promises of the

inclusive capitalism, technological and anthropological equality in accordance with the merciless

terms of the ultra-globalist elites.

The West and those states that are still striving for its shallow ideological umbrella will gain

nothing constructive but the hybrid form of hegemony and new devised world order. The

language of wars and aggression, doctrine of genocide, as an example of Israel and its leadership

explicitly demonstrates “we can fight with Lebanon, Iran, Turkey and Egypt at one time”. If we

de-code this statement it will sound as «we will plant the seeds of the war among all of you». It is

a road straight to the multi-polarized world with the gloomy future for the whole humanity.

If yesterday we were standing in the middle of the warring states on terms of one superpower,

the current global shift shows that the conditional division into two geopolitical domains of

interests and influence, the Global West and Global South, does not save us from the risk of the

uncontrollable mass destruction on the whole planet, on the opposite, it leads towards warring

states, nations, communities and world leaders on no one’s terms with no guarantees for anyone.

The deterioration of the international institutions, financial system, governance and

leadership, reconfiguration of the intellectual, ideational, social, political and technological patterns, – all that creates a serious threat to the process of the peaceful transformation towards

more stable and predictable multipolar world.

As soon as multipolarity is still an undecoded geopolitical physics there is a strong need to

elaborate a strategy that will allow to pass the corridor of the emerging full eclipses of the global

order-in transition and find the most advanced and innovative ways of sustaining peace and

prosperity of the rising power centers.

Russia and Pakistan have power, resources and will to face the highlighted risks, threats and

challenges, build a substantial ground for the lasting strategic partnership.

During the last decade both states have demonstrated a steady growth towards closer relations

and confidential dialogue within a broad range of interests such as defense and security, trade

and logistics, energy and agricultural sector.

The year 2025 has become a pivotal momentum for Russia-Pakistan ties due to the

geopolitical and geostrategic shifts in the USA, US-EU relations, South Asia and Middle East.

It opened a pathway towards new strategic drivers that can shape a new geopolitical

installation and partnerships, whereas Pakistan can play a significant role for Russia in the region

of South Asia, and Russia can help Pakistan to exit a long-lasting era of dependence on one

single source of power, technological and military support.

Russia and Pakistan are fully capable to expand their highly beneficial geopolitical

connectivity by promoting the values of national sovereignty, technological and scientific

exchange, building a well-tuned and synchronized mechanism of strategic communication that

will provide an unbroken string of projects and initiatives in a diversified way and for the long

term period of time.

For accomplishing this goal, the political, diplomatic and economic driving force of Russia

and Pakistan is to cover three levels of integration: strategic communication, strategic

initiatives and strategic alignment.

The strategic communication is to be channeled through the intensive exchange of ideas,

concepts, scenarios and insights on the potential of collaboration between Russia and Pakistan

(P&P contacts, public diplomacy, B2B). It will allow to construct an intellectual and ideational

reservoir of elaborating a strategic initiatives ground. The latter will supply the fuel for the

strategic advancement and partnership.

Unfortunately, there is not a single Russia-Pakistan think tank that is to be empowered to

develop a conceptual and strategic context of the long-term synergy between Russia and

Pakistan. The recent intensification of the contacts between academia, business, and diplomatic

circles (the First Russia-Pakistan Eurasian Forum,16-17th of December 2025, Moscow,

media forum «Moscow-Islamabad», 27th of February 2026, Moscow, the Second Russian

Pakistani International Conference “The Evolution of Russian-Pakistani Relations in a Changing World Order”, 13-15th of May 2026, Kazan, Russian Federation) demands a steady channel and

strategic interplay between the Russian and Pakistani decision-makers, as well as the financial

support for securing a reliable base of expertise, exchange and targeted programs and initiatives

implementation.

As for the B2B contacts, it also requires a serious institutional breakthrough as soon as the

current entities such as the Russia-Pakistan Business Council, Chamber of Commerce and

Industry of the Russian Federation, as well as other Associations for Business Promotion with

Pakistan are chained by the objective lack of space for the business maneuvering between Russia

and Pakistan, inertia and weak leadership.

However, the key challenge of these domains is the absence of the long-term strategy at all.

The reason of this vacuum is derived from the flat and linear past that practiced situational

analysis and was driven by the rapid ascents and rough downturns of interests of the parties

towards each other.

The strategic pivot of Russia towards Global South and an in-depth transformation of

Pakistan and its political and diplomatic spirit have placed both states in front of dilemma: to

move along the strategy-to-strategy accommodation upon the current geopolitical configuration

or to make a strategic breakthrough that will build a long-standing ground for trust and

commitment.

In order to lift the Russia-Pakistan ties on the new level we should avoid giving a considerate

attention to the comparative scale of the strategic relations of Russia and Pakistan with the third

parties. On the 4th of June 2026 the Russian President Vladimir Putin met with the

representatives of international news agencies on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International

Economic Forum at the Constantine Palace in Saint Petersburg. While replying on the question

of the Indian journalist, he highlighted Pakistan’s significance by firmly rejecting the narrative

that Islamabad acts merely as a proxy or under the complete control of Beijing. He described

Pakistan as a large, sovereign, and independent nation with multi-dimensional global

relationships.

This statement supports an idea of constructing an independent and mutually respectful

strategic bonds disregarding other forms of partnership that Russia and Pakistan have built or in

in the process of settling down. The message of the Russian President was positively received in

Islamabad and can foster new strategic drivers to emerge and shape the context of the future

agreements of collaboration in the sphere of trade and logistics, education, science and

technologies, security and defense, agriculture. There is also a broad scope of opportunities

within maritime logistics and space programs, humanitarian ties, B2B and P2P diplomacy.

The Russian President Vladimir Putin has named China, the United States, India, and Russia

as the four top countries driving the international order. This is an obvious trend which should be

considered at the cusp of shifting global order. However, it is worthy of mentioning that there is a high grade of friction and rivalry between indicated global players which may create a hurdle

race in the era of technological and geopolitical competition.

Pakistan has succeeded to design a dynamic strategic bond with China, USA, Iran, the

Gulf Arab states, Turkey, Egypt, as well as with the states of the Central Asia.

Therefore, it can emerge as a reliable and advanced partner that can participate in a diversity

of geopolitical configurations and alliances and secure its peaceful interplay and collaboration.

Being a middle power, Pakistan has entered the league of the global powers due to its diplomatic

leverage and smart performance in the geo-strategic and geo-economic domains.

Considering the above-mentioned strategic drivers the Russia-Pakistan Strategic Partnership

has a great potential to be well-articulated and diversified.

Pakistan is a ‘natural connector’ for China’s Belt and Road Initiative and Russia’s

International North-South Transportation Corridor. This should be worked out in a fruitful way

between Russia and Pakistan as well.

Pakistan is to be overviewed by Russia as a great tourist, investment and IT sector destination.

Pakistan is rapidly cementing its status as an emerging global IT powerhouse. It is officially

ranked among the top 16 global outsourcing destinations—outperforming over 170 countries—

and features one of the largest freelance tech communities in the world. Pakistan has one of the

youngest populations globally, with over 60% of its citizens under 30. This massive “youth

bulge” is driving a rapidly expanding IT sector, with national exports recently exceeding 3.8

billion. Today, hundreds of thousands of young professionals are leading the charge in software

development, digital entrepreneurship, and the global gig economy. Pakistani youth and its

digital excellence can become a valuable incentive for building a profound long-term strategic

partnership between Moscow and Islamabad.

Science, education and cultural exchange is another important realm that can cement the

playground of the Russia-Pakistan Strategic Ties. The contacts between academia, R&D

institutions, young scientists and public leaders, educational exchange programs are to become a

driving force of the strategic dialogue empowerment.

The successful story of Russia-Pakistan relations is to be written not only by politicians and

diplomats but by the civil communities of both countries, their youth, innovators and thinkers.

The human capital, knowledge economy and social progress are the values and goals that

are shared in common and can become a powerful language of communication between Moscow

and Islamabad disregarding geopolitical trends or fluctuations. Moscow and Islamabad are to

move towards vital consensus that will protect the immune system of their relations for decades

ahead.

Thus, Russia and Pakistan have all the required elements for designing its own self-sufficient

strategic DNA of collaboration that can provide a gradual transformation from the pragmatic strategic partnership grounded in energy security, defense cooperation, and regional connectivity,

towards united and indivisible strategy of Greater Eurasia, as both countries have a unique

historical privilege of exposing their creative driving force for building a new multipolar world

on the equitable terms and unprecedent spirit of innovation.

Dr. Roxolana Zigon, a geopolitical analyst, expert in IR and diplomacy

Director, Scientific Center for International & Strategic Research, University of World

Civilization, Russia

diplomatrz@mail.ru