China-Pakistan Strategic Alliance: Military and Security Implications 

By : Rajesh Kumar

Page No: 557-569

Abstract
To a student of geopolitics in Asia, the strategic relationship between China and Pakistan is known to be an “all weather” one. China has supported Pakistan on many occasions since the 1970s but in the twenty-first century, this support has turned into an alliance without formally being declared as one. Chinese President Xi Jinping, in his address to Pakistan’s parliament in April 2015, described this bilateral relationship as “taller than mountains, deeper than oceans, and sweeter than honey.”1 In an essay published in the Global Times in 2022, Pakistan’s Prime Minister, Shehbaz Sharif, wrote: “To a historian, the geographical proximity and commonality of past experiences may have brought us together. But for us in Pakistan and in true essence, fraternal bonds between our two peoples are much deeper, transcending the general precepts of inter-state ties and uniting us in an eternal and timeless relationship.”

Author
Air Marshal Rajesh Kumar retired from the Indian Air Force after 39 years of service. He is a graduate of Air Command and Staff College at Montgomery, Alabama as well as College of Defence Management at Secunderabad and holds a Master’s degree in Management Studies. He was the C-in-C of the Strategic Forces Command and has published articles in various journals with an emphasis on nuclear policy.
 

DOI: http://doi.org/10.32381/NS.2026.09.04.5