Beijing's opponents 'may not allow' alliance with Pakistan.

WASHINGTON -- Pakistan and China are engaged in a 'threshold alliance' but Beijing's opponents, particularly the US, may prevent it from becoming a fully-fledged alliance, says a recent US report.

The report titled The Future of the China-Pakistan Military RelatiAonship describes the current status of the China-Pakistan relationship as 'a threshold alliance,' but argues that it may not lead to a fully-fledged future alliance, 'potentially due to China's own missteps, or due to opponents' active measures to arrest the relationship'.

The author, Sameer P. Lalwani, works for the US Institute of Peace (USIP), a federal institution with a Congressional mandate.

The report notes that in 2015, analysts forecast a decline in the China-Pakistan military ties, citing various reasons. But the same year, President Xi Jinping visited PakisAtan and introduced CPEC as a 'flagship' project and announced sale of eight submarines to Pakistan.

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Now, in less than a decade, the China-Pakistan military relationship has 'advanced from an episodic partnership to a threshold alliance', the author argues.

The document claims that Pakistan's major defence equipment is 'increasingly sourced from China, especially the higher-end combat strike and power projection capabilities; and Pakistan continues to retire older US- and European-origin platforms'. But, more is needed for this threshold relationship to become a fully-fledged one. One indicator would be Beijing granting Pakistan more military aid and...