Nixon to Trump: Pakistan’s long record as backchannel between rival powers

Islamabad, Pakistan – In the middle of 1971, at the height of the Cold War, a Pakistani government plane carrying US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger flew overnight from Islamabad to Beijing. The trip was secret, the facilitator was Pakistan, and the geopolitical consequences were generational.

More than 50 years later, Pakistan is once again carrying messages. Foreign Ministe...