Pakistan performs a fine balancing act, again

livemint.com:

Several media reports of late have said that Pakistan has been supplying weapons to Ukraine for that country’s resistance against the Russian invasion. Most such reports seem to originate from the Indian media but there is the occasional non-Indian source that goes into some detail about such transfers.  Pakistan’s defence relationship with Ukraine, over three decades old, is valued at some$1.6 billion but the flow has largely been towards Pakistan, in the form of T-80 UD battle tanks. It is these tanks, and some artillery ammunition, that Pakistan is suspected of sending to Ukraine.

The government in Islamabad and Pakistani analysts have regularly denied such reports, but the planned visit of the Ukrainian foreign minister to Islamabad later this week suggests that there is more afoot. Pakistan is not a major political player on the international stage and its views on the Russia-Ukraine conflict hold little weight. Unlike Russia, which needs all the public support and visibility it can get in the global arena, the Ukrainians do not lack international support or visibility.

Their minister’s visit to Pakistan must, therefore, be about more practical matters such as arms and ammunition supplies. The Ukrainians themselves have not shied away from stating that they have received military support from Pakistan. At the same time, Pakistan has not officially condemned Russia’s invasion.

In January, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov praised Islamabad for its neutral stance in a meeting with his Pakistani counterpart in Moscow. In fact, the invasion was launched when then Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan was in Moscow, winding up a two-day visit. That visit – the first by a Pakistani Prime Minister in over two decades –