On August 14, Pakistan celebrated the 79th anniversary of its independence from British rule in 1947. That day, a new state led by Mohammed Ali Jinnah, known as Quaid-e-Azam (“Great Leader”), was born, considered the founding father of Pakistan. Today it is a country between India and Afghanistan, which is once again key to understanding Asia.
The trade relations between Pakistan and Spain have great potential. There is a good police and migration cooperation. There is also a curious cultural connection: the cities of Córdoba and the capital of Punjab, the historic Lahore, have been sister cities since 1968. This bond is due to the Pakistani national poet Muhammad Iqbal, who had great admiration for Al-Andalus.
Pakistani communities among us: many are already Spaniards
It is a country that seems quite distant from Spain, when the reality is that we are much closer than we think: there are large Pakistani communities settled in our country, especially in Barcelona, Valencia, and Logroño. An immigration of more than 117,000 well-integrated citizens, many of whom are already second generation (25,000 of them residing in Barcelona).
Spain and Pakistan are strengthening cooperation in migration, returns, and the fight against human trafficking networks. There is an Afghan route attempting to reach Spain through Pakistan. Both countries can cooperate in preventing Islamist radicalization and terrorism. It is a nation that is paying the price of the Afghan crisis five years after the Taliban returned to power. Islamabad is expelling Afghan citizens. Since 2023, more than 2.6 million Afghans have returned to Afghanistan. Islamabad accuses various armed groups, including Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), of using Afghan territory as a sanctuary for terrorists and from where they launch attacks against Pakistan. Therefore, the problem has a dual dimension, both human and military.
Pakistan is a country of great contrasts: a country that is a nuclear power (the only Muslim country that possesses nuclear weapons), with 240 million inhabitants (the fifth most populous nation in the world), with great geopolitical importance as a fundamental actor between China, India, Afghanistan, and Iran; but at the same time with significant economic, social, and structural problems (high debt and inflation and energy problems exacerbated by the crisis in Hormuz) and border issues with its neighbors Afghanistan and India. The paradox is extraordinary: a country capable of building and maintaining a nuclear arsenal that at the same time needs to turn to the IMF to stabilize its economy. This causes Islamabad to have to exercise a difficult balance between China (its major strategic partner), Gulf countries, Europe, the United States, and international financial institutions.
The connection between the two countries is not limited to migration
Despite all the above, which is real, there is also another Pakistan that is often not covered by Spanish media: its enormous textile industry, its agriculture, technology, startups, universities, cinema and music, cricket, and a huge urban population in cities like its cultural center, Lahore, its administrative and political capital, Islamabad, and its large cosmopolitan, commercial, and port city, Karachi. Our country has commercial interests, especially in the agri-food sector (Spanish exports to Pakistan increased by 75% in 2024 compared to 2023 starting from relatively small figures).
The European Union is one of its main economic partners. Trade in goods between the EU and Pakistan reached 12.2 billion euros in 2025. For Pakistan, the Union represented 14.1% of its total trade, while Pakistan accounts for only 0.2% of European goods trade. Therefore, it is an asymmetric relationship that causes Pakistan to need Europe more from a commercial point of view than Europe needs Pakistan. However, this does not mean it is an irrelevant country for Europeans. Quite the opposite. Its geographical situation makes it a central chess piece on a board where others like India, China, Afghanistan, Iran, and the Gulf are located.
Notable leadership in the Muslim world
Pakistan stands out as a Muslim military power for being the only majority Muslim country that has nuclear weapons. Its armed forces, apart from their enormous size (with 660,000 active military personnel and being the fourth largest army by number of troops in Asia after the armies of China, India, and North Korea), have extensive military experience. It also holds a significant political position as a founding member of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) made up of 57 Muslim states. Furthermore, its capacity for influence transcends the Arab world and is the great non-Arab Muslim power of South Asia with good relations with countries like Turkey, Azerbaijan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Central Asia. Pakistan does not have the money or religious weight of Saudi Arabia, nor the population of Indonesia, but it possesses something that none of them have: nuclear weapons and an army of 660,000 military personnel.
On August 7, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Turkey signed the Joint Defense Agreement of Mecca, which establishes a principle of mutual defense, military exercises, political and military coordination, intelligence, and cooperation in the defense industry. The new emerging defensive alliance would be open to new states joining, including Egypt. The agreement strengthens the one already signed in Riyadh on September 17, 2025, between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. We must also remember that Turkey is a member of NATO. Likewise, Pakistan is playing an important mediating role between the U.S. and Iran.
Regarding China, Pakistan maintains a strategic partnership thanks to its geographical position in southern India next to the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean, specifically, the Pakistani port of Gwadar, which is part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), one of the major projects of the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative. Gwadar could also be an important pearl within what some analysts call the string of pearls (a strategy that China does not officially acknowledge).
To know Pakistan, one must understand cricket
In conclusion, Pakistan is currently seeking to relate simultaneously with China, the United States, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Europe (through trade and immigration); likewise, it continues to consider India as its rival in an absolute and priority manner. A competition that has its origins in the independence and foundation of both nations in 1947, and their struggle for control of the historic regions of the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, located in the mountainous region of the Himalayas, whose sovereignty is primarily disputed by India and Pakistan, although China also controls part of it. Therefore, it is a rivalry that goes far beyond that experienced in the Cricket World Cup.