Pakistan is about to launch two military satellites in June with aid from China. It is pursuing its renewed space programme, using the same clandestine tactics it used for developing its atomic programme.

The Pakistan Armed Forces’ Strategic Plans Division (SPD) is preparing to launch two satellites in June 2018 – the Pakistan Remote Sensing Satellite (PRSS-1) and the Pakistan Technology Evaluation Satellite (PakTES-1A). The satellites will ride piggy-back on the Long March 2C launch vehicle from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centre .

The launch has techno-political intricacies and implications. The PRSS-1 is built by the China Great Wall Industry Corporation (CGWIC), an arm of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), which is Beijing’s prime state-controlled space contractor. The Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO) claims that the PRSS-1 will be vital for mapping agricultural yield, disaster and environmental mitigation and urban and rural lands. But deployment of the satellite may have military applications as well.

The Space Frequency Coordination Group (SFCG), a collegium of space agencies that oversees the allocation of radio frequencies for satellite operations, has said that the carrier frequency of PRSS-1 – 8.2 GHz – is part of the X-band (8.0-12.0 GHz) region of the electromagnetic spectrum, which is usually used for beyond-the-line-of-sight satellite communications to connect mobile platforms, such as unmanned aerial vehicles, aircraft, ships and ground forces. Also, the PRSS-1 is believed to carry two high-resolution payloads.

One might be a synthetic-aperture radar (SAR), which is used for all-weather, day-and-night, and terrestrial and marine imagery (IMINT) and geospatial intelligence (GEOINT). The other is an electro-optical (EO) imaging system, which has tactical command, control, communications, computing, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (C4ISR) applications.

The PRSS-1 is very likely another in the series of the Chinese Yaogan C4ISR satellites, which are manufactured by the CASC consortium, and carry payloads, such as SAR and EO. Beijing is intending to lease a Yaogan to Islamabad to militarily engage New Delhi from its western front and simultaneously monitor the multi-billion-dollar infrastructure investments it has made in Pakistan.

The SPD is taking small steps towards indigenising and modifying its space policy. Its space programme is spread between multiple agencies – the Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DESTO), Khan Research Laboratories (KRL), National Engineering and Scientific Commission (NESCOM), and SUPARCO. This institutional balkanisation and Islamabad’s swinging relations with the United States and China, have kept the space programme reliant on powerful international partners [4]. While currently dependent on Beijing, the SPD is now seeking less dominating partners. For instance, the PakTES-1A, apparently an indigenously built satellite, has a multispectral camera payload provided by the South Africa-based Space Advisory Company.

While Islamabad’s increasingly close relations with Beijing and its adventurous geopolitical manoeuvres have undermined its relations with the U.S. – most SPD subsidiaries have been sanctioned by the U.S. Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) since the Pakistani nuclear tests of
1998 – SUPARCO continues to obtain prohibited technologies on the international market including from U.S. suppliers. In August 2014 it obtained a Large Area Pulsed Solar Simulator (LAPSS), from Spectrolab, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the U.S. aerospace company, Boeing .

It is now becoming clear what SUPARCO gained from this illicit import. To date, Islamabad has the know-how to build very small ‘cube’ satellites; it launched its first such indigenously-built satellite – iCUBE-1 – in November 2013 on a Russian Dnepr launch vehicle. Constructing larger satellites requires state-of-the-art laboratory infrastructure and better equipment than is needed for building cube satellites. The LAPSS can simulate the entire electromagnetic spectrum of solar illumination that is needed for testing prototypes of larger satellites like the PakTES-1A.

Despite having a benefactor in Beijing, the SPD comprehends that Beijing may provide it technologies solely for its own pursuits in South Asia, not for altruistic reasons. That explains why, with PakTES-1A, the SPD has taken up capacity-building in the space sector by itself, often resorting to the clandestine proliferation tactics it has used to build its atomic programme.

The SPD has begun to realise the consequence of its technology gap with India and the world. It now wants to invest in scientific research and development, emulating its strategic partners in West Asia. New Delhi must welcome and support all attempts for peaceful progress in South Asia, but it must also avert military surprises and prepare to offset any attempts at C4ISR- driven warfare.

China reserves the right to retaliate if U.S. trade measures against it violate World Trade Organization (WTO) rules, the Chinese commerce ministry said Thursday.Gao Feng, a Chinese commerce ministry spokesman, said a White House proposal to limit Chinese investment in the U.S. would violate the "rules and basic spirit" of the WTO.

"The Chinese side will carefully evaluate the U.S. measures and reserves the right to take
corresponding measures," Gao said.

China believes the two countries have a huge potential for cooperation and does not want to
see an escalation of Sino-U.S. trade frictions, Gao told reporters at a regular news
briefing, Reuters reported. Earlier in May, trade tensions between the two countries appeared to cool following talks in Washington, Reuters reported. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said May 20 that the trade conflict was “on hold.”

However, the U.S. said Tuesday that a threat of imposing tariffs still holds and the Trump administration will press ahead with restrictions on investment by Chinese companies in the U.S., the news wire reported.

In fact, the White House said that in June it would impose a 25 percent tariff on $50 billion in imported goods from China that “contain industrially significant technology.” U.S. Commerce Department Secretary Wilbur Ross is scheduled to visit China on Saturday to negotiate the details of that plan. The White House said it will target tariffs on cutting-edge technologies, including those in markets that China has said it wants to dominate as part of its "Made in China 2025" program. Under that program, China aims to take a leading role in areas such as artificial intelligence, robotics and electric cars.

The tension between Iran on the one side and Israel and the US on the other side will pose serious threat to regional stability. The Tehran-Washington emerging cold war following the withdrawal of US from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) – signed in 2015 under which Iran scaled back its uranium enrichment program and promised not to pursue nuclear weapons – will be court disaster.

After the Donald Trump’s decision to abandon the nuclear deal in May 8, Washington threatened to impose sanctions on Iran but left it with one more option which was accepting a list of dozen demands released by the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday and calls on Iran to practice tighter restrictions on its nuclear program than those of 2015 nuclear deal, halt its ballistic missile program, release the US prisoners, etc. It was added that Iran will face “the strongest sanctions in history” if she did not comply with the demands. Iranian officials showed a backlash against the list and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said, “Who are you to decide for Iran and the world? The world today does not accept that the United States decides for the world. Countries have their independence”.


On the contrary, Israel, the US long-term strong ally, hailed Washington’s pledge to impose “the strongest sanctions in history” and called other countries to follow the lead. Israeli Prime Minister said, “We believe that it is only policy that can ultimately guarantee peace”.
The tension and cold war have been mounted in the Middle East recently after a number of events. The US, UK and France carried out more than hundred missiles in Syria in April 14 following a week to threats of retaliation for an alleged chemical weapons attack on civilians in Damascus. The act, which made the UN Security Council to hold an emergency meeting, was condemned by Iran and Russia as Vladimir Putin called the strikes an “act of aggression” adding that they would add to the humanitarian catastrophe in Syria, but the strikes were supported
by Australia.

In May 14, at least 60 Palestinians were killed, including a baby who died from teargas inhalation, and more than 2,200 were wounded in the wake of gunfire and tear gas carried out by Israeli soldiers as the US sought to relocate its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. The violence drew widespread international condemnation. The UN General Secretary Antonio Guterres said he was “profoundly alarmed and concerned by the sharp escalation of violence and the number of Palestinians killed and injured in the Gaza protests.” Similarly, Riyad Mansour, ambassador of the permanent observer mission of the state of Palestine to the UN, condemned the issue in the strongest terms and called it “odious massacre”.

However, Netanyahu blamed Hamas for the Gaza violence and he was backed by White House saying Hamas “intentionally and cynically provoking this response” – the allegation denied by Hamas. The move narrowed the chance of peace between Palestine and Israel as Palestinian said that US could no longer serve as an honest broker any peace process despite the fact that Trump said he would remain committed to peace between the two sides.

Subsequent to the death of 60 Palestinians, Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) convened by Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and called the killing as “savage crimes committed by the Israeli forces” and Erdogan compared the action of Israeli forces to Nazi Germany’s treatment of Jews in World War Two. Iran’s President called on Muslim countries “to cut their relations with the Zionist regime and also to revise their trade and economic ties with America”.

All the aforementioned issues are believed to result in tense relations between US and Iran. In other words, the confrontation between US and Israel on the one side and Iran on the other has underlain the recent tense relation. Now the question is what is the implication of this tension for the regional stability?

The cold war and political rivalries in the Middle East will destabilize the region and fuel the conflicts in Syria, Yemen and Palestine. That is to say, both political opponents and proponents will seek their interests and act to protect them even at the cost of people’s life. As a result, Israeli officials said that they killed Palestinians to protect their territory. This issue will apply everywhere in the Middle East and political parties will seek to defend their interests by jeopardizing the life of others. In such a case, no respect will be shown to international law.

Moreover, Afghanistan will not be immune to the consequences of regional conflicts, either. If
the US be engaged in bigger issues, Afghanistan will be left behind.


Despite Trump’s initial claim to eradicate the radical groups from the surface of earth, the unmitigated violence continue unabated in Afghanistan and both the Taliban and IS group carry out large-scale attacks killing soldiers and civilians in large number.

The escalated insurgency in Afghanistan shows that the US pays less attention to the country’s
conflict.

Regardless of the fact that who is right or wrong in the Middle East issue, the security situation will be worsened across the region, including Afghanistan, if the cold war and political rivalries continue. The world will have to stop political confrontation and practice upon international law so that no life be lost and no opportunity for peace agreement be missed.