In the Turkey-Saudi tussle, how Pakistan was snubbed

New Delhi, Aug 21: It appears as though in the battle between Saudi Arabia and Turkey, Pakistan has been snubbed.

Pakistan's Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa and ISI DG Lt. General Faiz Hameed during their visit to Riyadh failed to get an audience with Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman. Instead they got to meet with defence minister Khalid bin Salman bin Abdulaziz.

This prompted Shah Mahmood Qureshi to dash to China with the hope that he would get the support that was refused to Pakistan by Saudi Arabia. Pakistan has been trying to rake up the Kashmir issue on the international forum and the visit by the General to Saudi Arabia was in connection with this. However, he failed to get any support from Saudi Arabia on this issue and this prompted Qureshi to go to China and make out his case.

Saudi Arabia and Turkey are battling for supremacy in the Islamic world. Pakistan has been backing Turkey over Saudi Arabia in this battle and has been trying to build a new Islamic group that also includes, Iran, Qatar, Pakistan and Malaysia.

Saudi Arabia is also at loggerheads with Qatar as the latter is hobnobbing with Iran. On the same day that General Bajwa visited Riyadh, Qureshi held a meeting with Qatar's ambassador, something that Saudi Arabia noticed.

Qureshi's visit to China would not only try and gain support on the Kashmir issue, but would also project his country's political and military leadership's vision. He and his team would also look to prepare for a visit by Xi Jinping to Islamabad, which is expected to take place next month.

While China has already extended support on the China issue, Pakistan wants it to be raised at the UN General Assembly Session next month. During the last meeting only Turkey and Malaysia had raised this issue.

The visit would also look to scale up military cooperation between the two countries. He would also seek China's support in upgrading infrastructure in Sindh, Pakistan occupied Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan. He would also ask for help to set up a corridor between Pakistan and Nepal for trade purposes.