Relationship dossier
Germany
Pakistan
Relationship assessment
Development cooperation and dialogue underpin Germany–Pakistan ties, alongside human-rights concerns.
Germany toward Pakistan
+25Germany has pursued bilateral development cooperation with Pakistan, including support for vocational training, and has maintained a strategic dialogue with the Pakistani government. German policy has also raised concerns about human rights and the treatment of religious minorities in Pakistan.
Pakistan toward Germany
+20Pakistan has engaged in bilateral development cooperation and strategic dialogue with Germany, and the two governments have concluded investment and cultural arrangements. The scope and implementation of these forms of cooperation are not fully clear.
Overall relationship
+25The relationship has a durable cooperative foundation in development work, structured dialogue and bilateral arrangements, while German concerns about human rights in Pakistan provide a recurring source of friction. The relationship is neither a close strategic partnership nor chiefly adversarial.
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
Germany and Pakistan maintain a cooperative relationship that includes development cooperation, vocational training and a bilateral strategic dialogue. Their ties also include investment and cultural arrangements. Human-rights concerns, including the treatment of religious minorities and Pakistan’s use of the death penalty, have been points of criticism in German policy, though they have not defined the overall relationship.
Areas of tension
- German criticism of Pakistan’s death penalty and human-rights practices
- Concerns over the treatment of religious minorities in Pakistan
Key developments
Germany and Pakistan established a bilateral strategic dialogue.
The two governments concluded an agreement on the promotion and protection of investments.
Germany and Pakistan have maintained bilateral development cooperation, including vocational-training support.
Major uncertainties
- The scale and implementation of current bilateral development programs are unclear.
- The extent to which human-rights disagreements affect government cooperation is uncertain.