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Gulf States and the Conflict between India and Pakistan
There are strong links between the naval establishments of
Pakistan and Oman as exemplified by the elaborate naval
exercise, Thamal al Tayyab, in the Gulf of Oman in
September 2006. A Pakistan-Oman Joint Program Review
Group meets every two years to assess and plan defence
cooperation. 1
Pakistan has established long-lasting defence collaboration
with Bahrain and to expand that cooperation Pakistan’s
Defence Minister visited Bahrain in January 2008. In May
2008, defence officials from Bahrain, including Defence
Minister Ahmad Mukhtar and Bahrain National Guards
Commander Major General Sheikh Muhammad bin Isa Al
Khalifa visited Pakistan. Leaders from both countries
emphasized the importance of military-to-military
cooperation between Bahrain and Pakistan. Pakistan has so
far trained about 400 Bahraini military personnel and about
1,200 Pakistani defence personnel with years of experience
in the Pakistani armed forces, serve Bahrain’s air force and
Navy. 2 The two countries have a Joint Program Review
Group to regulate defence cooperation. In early 2008, a
delegation of Pakistan defence officials visited Bahrain to
further enhance defence cooperation between the two
countries.
Pakistan and UAE have signed the Defence Cooperation
Agreement and Pakistan is keen to enhance defence
cooperation with Qatar and Kuwait.
Pakistani Expatriate Community in the Gulf
No exact data is available to exactly measure the number of
Indo-Pak expatriates in the GCC, but the figure is estimated
around 6 million Indians and 3 million Pakistanis in the
1 Tanvir Ahmad Khan, "Gulf-Pakistan Relations: A Political Perspective",
in Faryal Leghari (ed.) Gulf-Pakistan Strategic Relations (Dubai, Gulf
Research Center, 2008): 23-50
2 Ibid
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