Relationship dossier
Australia
Pakistan
Relationship assessment
Practical cooperation across education, trade and security, alongside limits from differing strategic priorities.
Australia toward Pakistan
+15Australia has pursued bilateral cooperation with Pakistan in areas including education, trade and counterterrorism, while maintaining government-level diplomatic engagement.
Pakistan toward Australia
+15Pakistan has engaged Australia through bilateral trade, education and security cooperation, including counterterrorism dialogue and exchanges with Australian institutions.
Overall relationship
+15The relationship combines sustained diplomatic engagement and practical cooperation in education, trade and counterterrorism with differing regional priorities that limit strategic alignment. Cooperation is substantive but comparatively bounded rather than a close, comprehensive partnership.
How to read these scores
Scores are rough judgments, not objective measurements or current verification. Directional scores describe government policy and conduct, not public opinion. The overall score is an independent estimate, never an average.
- −100
- Extreme sustained hostility
- −50
- Substantially adversarial
- 0
- Mixed or neutral, supported by knowledge
- +50
- Substantially cooperative
- +100
- Exceptionally close sustained partnership
“Not assessed” means there is no recorded score. Pair existence makes no claim about diplomatic recognition or established relations.
Relationship context
Overview
Australia and Pakistan maintain diplomatic engagement and have developed practical cooperation, including in education, trade and counterterrorism. Their relationship has also faced limits from differing regional priorities and periodic political or security concerns. Cooperation is meaningful but does not amount to a close strategic partnership.
Areas of tension
- Differences in regional and security priorities have constrained closer strategic alignment.
Key developments
Australia and Pakistan established a bilateral counterterrorism dialogue to discuss security cooperation.
The Australia-Pakistan trade relationship expanded alongside longstanding education links and Pakistani student participation in Australian institutions.
Major uncertainties
- The present scope and implementation of bilateral security cooperation are unclear.
- The durability and scale of trade and education initiatives vary over time.