ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that in spite of upheavals in Pakistan-US security understandings in the 1960s, the strong trading and economic links between Pakistan and Japan allowed their relationship to continue to grow. As Pakistan’s interests in the US security system began to dwindle as a result of the Sino-Indian border clash of October 1962, the Sino-Pakistan entente, and the Indo-Pakistan War 1965, the smooth fabric of the Pakistan-Japan relationship was put on trial. Nevertheless, during the 1960s Japan’s economic interests enormously increased in Pakistan under President Muhammad Ayub Khan’s massive industrialization program. This was also a period of political stability in Pakistan, and diplomatic exchanges further strengthened economic ties. The diplomacy of Ayub and Ikeda aimed to achieve economic objectives and to minimize the disruption to bilateral relations resulting from their changing interests in the US global security system.
