- 16 hours ago
Pakistan is making a striking new strategic move, and this time, the focus is Somalia. Islamabad signed a defence cooperation agreement with Mogadishu on August 4, covering counter-terrorism, military training, military exchanges and capability building.
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00:08can america punish an ally for saying no to war and still expect that ally to trust washington
00:14when the next crisis comes and while trump turns south korea's military exercises into a bargaining
00:20chip is pakistan quietly building a very different kind of power far beyond south asia
00:25tonight two stories about alliances leverage and the price of strategic relevance one sees america
00:33testing loyalty in seoul cutting military drills meant to deter north korea the other sees pakistan
00:39moving into somalia the red sea and the western indian ocean looking for a seat at a much bigger
00:45table one power is testing alliances the other is building networks one risks trust the other is
00:53chasing influence so who's playing the smarter game hello and welcome you're watching statecraft
00:59with me gita mohan pakistan's supreme court has ordered former prime minister imran khan to be
01:04moved from jail to a hospital meeting in demand his party and family have raised for months
01:10khan 73 has been behind bars since august 2023 after being convicted in several cases that he says
01:17are politically motivated his family and lawyers have repeatedly raised concerns about his health
01:23including claims that he suffered significant vision loss in his right eye while in prison the court has
01:30directed that khan be transferred to shifa international hospital within 48 hours according to his
01:36spokesperson he's expected to remain there until the 16th of september or until doctors are satisfied with
01:42this condition reacting to the order khan's sister alima khan said the family had almost lost hope of
01:48getting justice but continued to trust in allah she welcomed the court's decision saying the family's
01:54main demand was for imran khan to receive a full medical checkup in hospital
02:01thank god today the court has given us some hope we had become very disappointed because it felt like all
02:07hope
02:07for justice had disappeared but we continue to place our faith in allah and today thankfully the
02:13court has given us the one thing we wanted for imran khan to be taken to hospital and undergo a
02:19complete
02:19medical examination as we understood from our lawyer the judge has said that imran khan will now be
02:25examined at the hospital dr asma will be present and a medical board will also be formed khan continues
02:33to face multiple legal cases although some convictions have been suspended or overturned
02:37with appeals still pending he denies all wrongdoing the move could now intensify scrutiny over khan's
02:44treatment in prison and add fresh pressure on pakistan's government over the fate of its most
02:49prominent opposition leader the debate over american election integrity has shifted from domestic rhetoric
02:56to a global comparison with the world's largest democracy now serving as the primary benchmark
03:02for a fundamental overhaul of the u.s voting system in a recent post on truth social president
03:09donald trump revealed a pivotal exchange with india's chief election commissioner gyanesh kumar
03:14who questioned president trump on how any republic can sustain legitimate elections without a valid
03:21photo id requirement this inquiry has become the cornerstone of a renewed push for the save america act
03:27framing stricter voter identification not just as a policy choice but as a standard for democratic
03:34survival the administration is leveraging india's massive electoral scale to expose what it describes
03:40as a critical gap in american protections in a move to redefine the debate president trump cited data from india's
03:48the president's most recent election noting that 640 million voters participated every single one of
03:54whom was required to present a valid photo id this data was reinforced by u.s ambassador sergio gore
04:01who termed the comparison absolutely correct and highlighted that in india at an election of that scale
04:08every single voter was required to have an id look the president was very clear and what india does
04:17having a voter id law is something that we should pass in the united states you had over 660 million
04:25people
04:25vote by the way less than one percent by mail so i think it's vitally important voter id is important
04:31this is not a partisan issue and so the president is absolutely right that the united states should have
04:36a voter id requirement when people show up to vote the save america act seeks to codify this level of
04:42scrutiny by mandating documentary proof of united states citizenship for registration and directing
04:48states to purge non-citizens from their roles beyond identification the act mirrors international
04:54standards by seeking to limit mail-in ballots primarily to those with specific illnesses disabilities or
05:01military obligations effectively positioning identity as the final safeguard for the american vote for
05:08the white house more than 640 million voters with photo ids in india represent a definitive proof of
05:15concept the message delivered by president trump is clear the administration believes that to secure
05:20the future of the american republic the u.s must adopt uncompromising identity standards the save america act
05:27is now being positioned as the final legislative safeguard for the integrity of the american board
05:42president trump just punished south korea for refusing to join his war with iran by cutting military
05:48drills meant to deter north korea do you remember at the start of the u.s iran war memes about
05:54north
05:54korea's leader kim jong-un not being able to join the war flooded the internet well now it seems kim
06:01jong-un might finally join the war and it's all thanks to president trump here is how president trump
06:08has just turned a 70-year military partnership into something that looks less like an alliance and more
06:14like a loyalty card help america in iran or watch washington rethink how much it helps you in korea
06:21on the eve of the annual ulchi freedom shield drills trump ordered the pentagon to substantially reduce
06:28the exercises citing their cost south korea's refusal to support the u.s war in iran and his very good
06:35relationship with kim jong-un the message was blunt seoul said no to iran and suddenly exercises designed
06:42to deter north korea became bargaining chips in a war thousands of kilometers away so why is trump
06:49connecting seoul's defense obligations to iran and what does that say about the future of america's
06:55alliances and why is trump linking south korea's alliance obligations to the u.s iran war because
07:02trump sees the alliance through a transactional lens his argument is basically this america has
07:08roughly 39 000 troops in south korea protecting seoul from north korea so why should south korea refuse to
07:15help america when washington asks for support in iran trump made exactly that point in the oval office
07:22calling seoul's refusal strange but here's the problem the u.s south korea alliance was built
07:28around the korean peninsula the joint exercises exist so american and south korean forces can prepare
07:35for a conflict or security crisis involving north korea and largely china they're not a membership fee for
07:41every american war on the planet yet trump has connected the two anyway south korea says no to
07:48iran and the military drills suddenly come under the knife that turns an alliance commitment into a
07:54loyalty test support america abroad or risk losing american support at home and that is a very different
08:00kind of alliance so what does trump actually cut when he cuts the drills not just a few days of
08:06soldiers
08:07running around with maps and radios ulchi freedom shield is a major readiness exercise thousands of
08:14american and south korean troops train together the exercise combines computer simulated command post
08:19training with field exercises and south korea's civil defense exercise this year about 18 000 south korean
08:27troops were expected to participate alongside u.s forces with personnel from 11 united nations command member
08:34states also expected why does that matter because when the exercises are reduced the cost is not merely
08:41symbolic the signal matters too america and south korea have conducted regular joint exercises since the
08:47year 1954. north korea protests them every single time pyongyang calls them rehearsals for invasion
08:56the korean peninsula's division a lingering scar from world war ii and the 1950s conflict
09:02remains a frozen constant threat for seoul the u.s defensive pact is not just diplomatic it is the
09:09bedrock of its national security trump has now adopted part of that argument saying the drill sent a
09:16totally inappropriate and hostile signal to north korea he says has been unthreatening and respectful
09:23under his presidency but if the purpose is to make north korea comfortable what happens to south korea's
09:30confidence that is where this gets tricky trump may believe that reducing the drills could encourage
09:36kim jong-un to return to diplomacy and trump clearly wants that relationship back he says kim has
09:43responded to his outreach and described the exchange as very positive he's also repeatedly said that he and
09:50kim understand each other why hasn't kim jong-un responded to your request to have a conversation
09:56how do you know he has a response has he um yeah he has did you speak to him where
10:03are you in conversation
10:06very positive well just so you understand with south korea look south korea has been protected by us for
10:12many many years and during my first term they agreed to pay close to three billion dollars a year for
10:18protection because we don't you know they essentially weren't there and i asked them to do that at my
10:24request i said not right they weren't happy about it but they agreed i asked for 10 billion dollars
10:30and uh they were very unhappy but we agreed for short term there would be three billion dollars and
10:37next year would go up and the next year would go up so they start paying for their protection
10:41but there is a small historical problem here trump tried this before in the year 2018 after his
10:48singapore summit with kim trump announced that america would halt upcoming exercises with south korea
10:54the move stunned his own advisors and nervous allies it did not produce the grand breakthrough trump
11:00wanted the next summit in hanoi collapsed over north korea's nuclear program so could cutting exercises
11:08create instability instead of peace absolutely because south korea may look at the situation
11:14and ask a very uncomfortable question if america can reduce a core military commitment because seoul
11:20refused to join a completely different war what happens the next time washington and seoul disagree
11:26and that question does not stay inside one government office it reaches the wider region south korea has
11:33already faced fears of american abandonment those fears have fueled discussions about whether it
11:38should acquire nuclear weapons of its own president lee jim young opposes that path but seoul has sought
11:44the ability to enrich and reprocess nuclear fuel for its civilian nuclear power industry that would make
11:51building a bomb easier if south korea ever decided it needed one so the irony is obvious america wants south
11:59korea to do more for its own defense some experts agree experts argue that washington should push seoul to
12:06take greater responsibility for defending itself rather than expecting america to fight a war with north korea
12:12for it fair enough but there is a difference between asking an ally to carry more of the load and
12:17making the
12:18alliance itself conditional one says do more the other says do what i want or i may do less for
12:25you
12:26that distinction matters and then there's north korea kim has already watched the u.s war in iran
12:33he has watched america fight a major conflict while trump simultaneously talks about diplomacy with him
12:39he has strengthened ties with russia while north korean troops have fought alongside russian forces in ukraine
12:45north korean soldiers have also gained battlefield experience including in drone warfare so what does pyongyang see
12:53it may see an america that has reduced exercises with south korea pulled naval assets from the indo-pacific
12:59toward the middle east or west asia and faced depleted weapons stockpiles because of the iran war
13:06that could make north korea think the alliance has cracks and cracks are precisely what veterans tries to
13:12prevent so what does the war in iran reveal about america's alliance system it reveals a basic
13:19contradiction washington wants allies to support american military campaigns but allies have their
13:25own security priorities south korea refused to join the iran war japan also held back from calls to do
13:32more for america in iran yet its military exercises with the united states continued so why punish seoul this
13:40publicly that is exactly what makes the decision so damaging if military exercises become bargaining chips
13:47allies allies have to think twice before saying no to washington but that can create the opposite of
13:53what america wants instead of stronger cooperation countries may start hedging their bets so if america
13:59makes alliance transactional what happens to american influence america's military power remains enormous
14:07but alliances depend on something money cannot simply buy confidence for decades south korea japan and
14:14other allies have built their security calculations around american commitments those commitments are
14:20supposed to survive changes in presidents and changes in crises if allies begin to believe that american
14:27protection depends on whether they support every u.s military campaign they have an obvious incentive to
14:33prepare for a future in which washington may not be there that could mean more military spending more
14:39strategic independence more pressure to build their own capabilities and south korea is already moving
14:46in that direction trump's immediate target is south korea the immediate issue is a military exercise the
14:52immediate excuse is iran but the message travels much farther it reaches japan it reaches australia it
15:00reaches every country that depends on american power and wonders what happens when its interests do not
15:07perfectly match washington's support america and iran or the drills get cut say no and suddenly the
15:14price of saying no appears on your security bill that may win washington leverage in the short term but
15:20alliances are not built like hotel rooms where you cancel the reservation when the service disappoints you
15:27they're built on predictability and if america spends that credibility too freely it may discover that
15:34the hardest thing to rebuild is not a military exercise it is trust pakistan has found a new
15:41strategic playground and surprisingly it is not kashmir it is not afghanistan it is somalia yes somalia
15:49on the 4th of august islamabad signed a defense cooperation agreement with mogadishu three days later
15:55pakistan signed a new collective security pact with saudi arabia and turkey put those two developments
16:01together and a very different picture emerges pakistan is not simply training somali troops
16:06it is trying to insert itself into the emerging security architecture of the red sea and the western
16:12indian ocean and that is a much bigger game because let us ask the obvious question why does pakistan
16:19suddenly care so much about somalia is somalia now a core pakistani security interest is pakistan suddenly
16:26becoming a major african power certainly not the real attraction is geography somalia sits at the
16:33mouth of the gulf of aden beside the red sea and along the western indian ocean in other words somalia
16:40sits next to the highways of global trade and pakistan understands the value of that location
16:45because if you cannot be a great power you can still try to become strategically useful to great
16:50powers that appears to be islamabad's calculation somalia needs military training pakistan can
16:56provide it somalia needs counter-terrorism expertise pakistan has plenty somalia needs relatively
17:02affordable defense equipment pakistan has an industry built around exactly that market and saudi arabia
17:10and turkey they can potentially provide the money technology and political backing that is the
17:16equation the defense agreement signed on the fourth of august covers counter-terrorism military training
17:22exchanges and capability building sounds harmless but then comes august 7th pakistan saudi arabia and
17:30turkey signed the mecca joint defense agreement suddenly the somalia deal looks less isolated it begins to
17:37look like one piece of a larger pakistani strategy and here is where islamabad deserves credit pakistan may be
17:45economically constrained it may be diplomatically boxed in but it is trying to turn its one major asset
17:52military capability into geopolitical influence if saudi arabia needs security partners pakistan wants to be
17:59one if turkey wants strategic reach pakistan wants to be useful if somalia needs a military partner pakistan
18:06wants to fill that space this is not charity this is strategic networking and there is a precedent pakistan has
18:15been in somalia before its troops participated in the un operation in the early 1990s pakistani forces
18:21were among the last international contingents to leave mogadishu in 1995 but after that pakistan was
18:28hardly at the center of somalia security story the real burden of fighting al-shabaab was carried by
18:34african states uganda burundi kenya ethiopia and jibouti so islamabad cannot claim that it is returning to some
18:42historic sphere of influence it isn't it is entering a new game and that is precisely what makes this
18:49interesting the horn of africa has become too strategically important to ignore saudi arabia
18:55is looking across the red sea turkey has built a strong relationship with somalia the uae has developed
19:01its own network of commercial and strategic interests across the region and behind all of this is one
19:07enormous prize the maritime corridor connecting the indian ocean the gulf of aden and the red sea
19:15that corridor matters because global trade runs through it energy runs through it military power
19:20runs through it and when tensions rise everyone suddenly remembers how important geography really is
19:28pakistan wants a role in that geography but islamabad is walking into a minefield because saudi arabia
19:35turkey and the uae may share some interests they do not share all interests their strategies across
19:42the horn of africa have not always been identical so pakistan is attempting something extremely delicate
19:48it wants to work with saudi arabia it wants deeper defense ties with turkey and it wants to enter somalia
19:55without becoming trapped in the rivalries surrounding somalia itself that is the dilemma pakistan wants the
20:03benefits of regional competition without paying the price of regional competition and somalia could
20:08test whether islamabad can actually pull that off there's also a military business opportunity here
20:15reports have suggested that somali interests in pakistan's jf-17 fighter aircraft reportedly with
20:21saudi and turkish support there is no confirmed deal so let us not get ahead of the facts but the
20:28possibility
20:28is significant because imagine what that would mean pakistan would not just be training somali forces
20:35it could potentially be supplying them training creates relationships weapons create dependency and
20:42long-term military cooperation creates influence but there is one massive problem somalia is not an easy
20:50customer it is a security challenge al-shabaab remains a threat the somali military is still being rebuilt and
20:57the country needs much more than weapons it needs institutions it needs logistics it needs command
21:03structures it needs sustainable financing pakistan can train soldiers but can it help build an entire
21:11security system that is a much harder question and pakistan has another problem money a serious overseas
21:19military footprint costs money aircraft cost money training costs money maintenance costs
21:26money logistics cost money pakistan's economic constraints are therefore impossible to ignore
21:33which brings us back to saudi arabia and turkey if they help finance to support this engagement
21:39islamabad gets something it desperately needs it gets strategic leverage without having to carry the
21:45entire financial burden itself and perhaps that is the smartest part of pakistan's calculation
21:52somalia gives islamabad an african platform saudi arabia gives it financial weight turkey gives it
21:59technological and defense credibility pakistan supplies the military's manpower and expertise
22:05it is a partnership of convenience and islamabad wants to turn that convenience into influence there's
22:12another twist that makes pakistan somalia move even more intriguing pakistan is now a consequential
22:18u.s security partner yet islamabad is deepening defense ties with somalia even as washington tightens
22:25restrictions on mogadishu the trump administration has imposed sweeping travel restrictions on somali
22:31nationals suspended immigrant visa processing and move to terminate temporary protected status for somalis in
22:39august 2026 so while washington is tightening the screws on somalia over immigration and security
22:45concerns pakistan is moving in the opposite direction expanding military cooperation with
22:50mogadishu that raises a bigger question is islamabad deliberately stepping into a strategic space
22:57where washington is pulling back but there's another audience watching this india because pakistan's
23:04interest in somalia is not happening in a vacuum the western indian ocean is strategically important to india
23:11arabian sea connects india directly to this wider maritime space and pakistan's naval and military
23:18ambitions are increasingly moving beyond its immediate coastline so while islamabad says somalia is about
23:25counter-terrorism and capacity building india will inevitably ask another question is pakistan building
23:32a new strategic network around the indian ocean that question may be premature today but it cannot be
23:38dismissed because strategic footprints often begin small a training agreement a defense sale a military
23:45exchange a security pact and then years later you discover that a network has been built that is why
23:52somalia matters not because pakistan is about to dominate the horn of africa it won't not because
23:58somalia is suddenly islamabad's most important ally it isn't but because pakistan is testing whether it
24:05can turn military capability into geopolitical relevance far beyond south asia and this may
24:11actually be pakistan's bigger ambition because pakistan may have entered somalia claiming to offer
24:17security but what islamabad is really looking for is something much more valuable a seat at the table a seat
24:25at the red sea a seat in the western indian ocean a seat inside the emerging gulf africa security
24:33architecture and perhaps most importantly a seat among the powers that shape it that's all in this
24:41edition of statecraft before we go a chinese animated film mocked online as terrible has somehow become a
24:47surprise box office sensation new lie about a calf dreaming of growing up with the help of its family
24:54earned just a few thousand won in its first days before sarcastic reviews and viral memes changed
25:01everything young viewers began recommending it as a prank while others defended its simple
25:06unusual style from online mockery to packed theaters this bizarre little film has found an audience
25:13good bye and take care
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