By PRAMOD SHAH
Over the past decade, one man has consistently increased his diplomatic influence in South Asian politics and brought about favorable changes in the diplomatic situation in South Asia. He is not a politician, but Field Marshal General Asim Munir of the Pakistani Army.
Asim Munir is the only General of the Pakistan Army who has the experience of being the head of both Army Intelligence and Pakistani ISI.
How far Asim Munir can go in influencing the politics of Pakistan and South Asia, and how dangerous he is, a glimpse of this can be seen from the cipher leak (Cypher I-0678) of the conversation held on 7 March 2022 between Donald Lun, the diplomatic in-charge of South Asia affairs of America, and Aabad Majeed Khan, Pakistan’s Ambassador to America, at the behest of Asim Munir, which is the leak of 17 May 2026.
This was aimed at preventing a shift in Pakistani foreign policy, triggered by Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan’s visit to Russia in February 2022 and Pakistan’s neutrality and siding with Russia in the Ukraine conflict.
In this, Donald Lun states that if Imran Khan is removed through a no-confidence motion, America will forget everything and everything will be fine!
On April 9th, Imran Khan was removed from the post of Prime Minister under an American conspiracy.
This is the most horrifying and disgusting face of American diplomacy.
This proves that America and Asim Munir will go to any lengths to achieve their interests.
Imran Khan’s ouster from power in Pakistan was all dictated by Donald Lu’s script, and Imran Khan kept claiming that this was all a conspiracy by the United States. No one listened to him.
When Imran Khan’s influence among the public did not diminish, the conspiracy went further and Imran Khan was imprisoned in corruption cases. Imran Khan is being subjected to various tortures which he is still facing in Rawalpindi jail.
The tussle between Imran Khan and General Asim Munir started with the latter becoming the ISI chief in 2018.
In June 2019, Asim Munir was removed from the post of ISI by Imran Khan.
Since then, Asim Munir started his mission in accordance with American interests. Asim Munir was rewarded for the fall of Imran Khan’s government by making him a General of the Pakistan Army in June 2022. Since then, he has been continuously successful in global diplomacy. Donald Trump and the White House call him “My Favorite Field Marshal”; he is the only general in the world to have lunch at the White House. China calls General Asim Munir “Iron Brother”.
General Munir’s story of becoming a confidant of both the US and China is part of his Munir Doctrine: hedging + military diplomacy.
In this, Munir presents Pakistan as a “regional middle power” and security provider, while placating both the US and China. He assures the security of China’s projects and acts as a bridge to advance Chinese interests in neighboring countries.
After the ouster of Sheikh Hasina, he reached Bangladesh in October 2025 and assured military support to Mohammad Yunus, helped in increasing Chinese reach in Bangladesh. The effect of this psychological help was that Mohammad Yunus visited China and made a controversial statement regarding India’s Chicken Neck. Then in January 2026, Bangladesh’s Air Chief Marshal Hasan Mahmud Khan met General Asim Munir and held serious talks on military security training and regional cooperation.
Similarly, in July 2025, General Asim Munir made a diplomatic visit to Sri Lanka and after meeting the political leadership there, reached an agreement on Sri Lanka-Pakistan military cooperation and training. With all this, General Asim Munir brought Sri Lanka very close to China. It is because of Asim Munir that even without a formal treaty, China is using Pakistan as its weapons depot, as we saw during Operation Sindoor.
Pakistan used several such fighter jets, primarily the J-35, which was not even purchased by Pakistan at that time.
However, currently, a major defense deal worth $12 billion (Rs 1 lakh crore) is about to be signed between Pakistan and China, which includes:
40 J-35A fifth-generation stealth fighter jets
6 KJ-500 Airborne Early Warning and Control (AWACS) platforms
HQ-19 long-range anti-ballistic missile defense systems.
As soon as this defense deal is completed, there is a lot of pressure on India to counter this.
Along with the expansion of military capabilities, the way General Asim Munir took forward the diplomatic talks with Bangladesh and Sri Lanka directly benefited China. Today, along with Sri Lanka’s Hambantota port, Colombo Port and Bangladesh’s Mongla Port, Payra Deep Sea and Chittagong Port are largely under Chinese control.
Thus, with the help of General Asim Munir, China has compensated for the lack of maritime border in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. This is the changing power balance of South Asia in which the emergence of General Asim Munir in the role of a trusted mediator is a big concern for India. General Munir’s role as a mediator in the current US-Iran war is also an indication that China, Iran and America all seem to have faith in him.
We have to understand and counter this growing diplomatic influence of General Asim Munir in South Asia in time, only then we can maintain our status as an important power in South Asia.
