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

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

and the comprised 32-states military alliance, called

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

. 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 (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

Secretary of State, General (retired)

Colin Powell Colin Luther Powell ( ; – ) was an Americans, American diplomat, and army officer who was the 65th United States secretary of state from 2001 to 2005. He was the first African-American to hold the office. He was the 15th National Security ...

, Pakistan is designated as a "

Major non-NATO ally A major non-NATO ally (MNNA) is a designation given by the Federal government of the United States, United States government to countries that have strategic working relationships with the United States Armed Forces while not being members of t ...

" as of 2004. Cooperation between Pakistan and NATO has occurred in several main sectors: fighting insurgency and terrorism in

Bosnia Bosnia and Herzegovina, sometimes known as Bosnia-Herzegovina and informally as Bosnia, is a country in Southeast Europe. Situated on the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula, it borders Serbia to the east, Montenegro to the southeast, and Croatia to th ...

and

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran 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 weakened.

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 consists of three uniformed services—the Army, Navy, and the Air Force, which are backe ...

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

Bosnian war The Bosnian War ( / Рат у Босни и Херцеговини) was an international armed conflict that took place in Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995. Following several earlier violent incid ...

. 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 () (abbreviated as GoP), constitutionally known as the Federal Government, commonly known as the Centre, is the national authority of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, a federal republic located in South Asia, con ...

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; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...

and the ISI headed the

intelligence operations Intelligence assessment, is a specific phase of the intelligence cycle which oversees the development of behavior forecasts or recommended courses of action to the leadership of an organization, based on wide ranges of available overt and cover ...

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 consists of three uniformed services—the Army, Navy, and the Air Force, which are backed ...

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 The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) was a multinational military mission in Afghanistan from 2001 to 2014. It was established by United Nations Security Council Resolution 1386 according to the Bonn Agreement, which outlined t ...

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

state visit A state visit is a formal visit by the head of state, head of a sovereign state, sovereign country (or Governor-general, representative of the head of a sovereign country) to another sovereign country, at the invitation of the head of state (or ...

NATO headquarters The NATO headquarters is the political and administrative center of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). After previous locations in London and Paris, it has been headquartered in Brussels since 1967, in a complex in Haren, part of ...

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

Prime Minister A prime minister 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. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

Shaukat Aziz Shaukat Aziz (born 6 March 1949) is a Pakistani-born British former banker who served as the 15th prime minister of Pakistan from 28 August 2004 to 15 November 2007. When his term as Prime Minister was over, he immediately left Pakistan and se ...

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 worsened after an unfriendly attack took place in near border; Pakistan responded with suspending all NATO operations, boycotting the

Bonn Conference Bonn () is a federal city in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, located on the banks of the Rhine. With a population exceeding 300,000, it lies about south-southeast of Cologne, in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr region. This m ...

and evicting the

US air force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...

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

During the War on terror, there were two main NATO supply routes which cross through Pakistan: one was via

Torkham Torkham (; ) is a Pakistani town in Khyber District (until 2018 the Khyber Agency of the now defunct FATA), that is the location of the Torkham Border Crossing with Afghanistan just to the west of the historic Khyber Pass. Torkham lies at the end ...

and the other was via

Chaman Chaman (Pashto and ) is the capital city of the Chaman District in Balochistan, Pakistan, Balochistan, Pakistan. It is located near the Durand Line, Afghanistan-Pakistan border. The city is situated south of the Wesh–Chaman border crossing with ...

. 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 Age ...

. In late 2013, the PTI-led government in

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (; ; , ; abbr. KP or KPK), formerly known as the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), is a Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Pakistan. Located in the Northern Pakistan, northwestern region of the country, Khyber ...

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 (born 5 October 1952) is a Pakistani politician, philanthropist, and former cricketer who served as the 19th prime minister of Pakistan from August 2018 until April 2022. He was the founder of the political party Pak ...

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

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