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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Pakistan
Index
Pakistan's early foreign policy espoused nonalignment.
Despite disputes with India, the policies of the two
countries
were similar: membership in the Commonwealth of Nations;
no
commitment to either the United States or the Soviet
Union; and a
role in the UN.
Pakistan's foreign policy stance shifted significantly
in
1953 when it accepted the United States offer of military
and
economic assistance in return for membership in an
alliance
system designed to contain international communism. When
the
administration of Dwight D. Eisenhower sought a series of
alliances in the "Northern Tier"--Pakistan, Iran, and
Turkey--and
in East Asia, Pakistan became a candidate for membership
in each.
In 1954 Pakistan signed a Mutual Defense Agreement with
the
United States and became a member of the Southeast Asia
Treaty
Organization (SEATO). The following year, Pakistan joined
Iran,
Iraq, and Turkey in the Baghdad Pact, later converted into
the
Central Treaty Organization (CENTO) after Iraq's
withdrawal in
1959. Pakistan also leased bases to the United States for
intelligence-gathering and communications facilities.
Pakistan
saw these agreements not as bulwarks against Soviet or
Chinese
aggression, but as a means to bolster itself against
India.
Data as of April 1994
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