EARLY DEVELOPMENTS IN PAK-CHINA BILATERAL RELATIONSHIP: A STUDY OF AYUB’S ERA (1958-1960)

With the advent of 21st century, the stress over Pak-China bilateral relationship has increased drastically. China being one of the pioneers in world trade and often referred to as the upcoming world economic leader has healthy bilateral terms with Pakistan, progressing further day by day. The inception of strong engagements between Pak-China has its roots back to the Sino-Pak Border Treaty of 1963. Since then, the bilateral relationships between the countries improved and China has been a strong supporter of Pakistan in every matter till date. The concreteness of Sino-Pak bilateral terms is generally attributed to the foreign policy measures adopted by Ayub Khan. The Sino-Pak border treaty was signed during the military regime of Field Marshal Ayub Khan that proved as the cornerstone of Sino-Pak long-term relationships. Since then, China has been of great assistance to Pakistan in terms of economic and military aids. This paper acutely peeps into the historical foreign policy measures of Pakistan during Ayub’s era. The challenges that have been fronted by Ayub Khan to maintain healthy relationships with China while maintaining the terms with other world leaders simultaneously. This paper concludes in the light of the collected facts that it was not Ayub Khan who overemphasized on Sino-Pak bilateral terms, but it was rather the need of time and for the prosperous future of Pakistan.