Pak-US ties
reset?
After Prime
Minister Imran Khan’s return from his US visit, both sides have expressed their
desire to reset mutual relations that have been dogged by friction for years,
which was exacerbated by US President Donald Trump’s statements and actions to
punish Pakistan for alleged double-dealing vis-à-vis Afghanistan. The US State
Department’s spokesperson Morgan Ortgus said the two countries seek to advance
their shared priorities. The priority for Washington, it is obvious, is
extrication from the long running Afghan war. The future relationship between
Pakistan and the US depends critically on the outcome of that effort, for which
Imran Khan has stated he would be meeting the Afghan Taliban to persuade them
to do whatever is necessary to find a political solution to the war and restore
peace, including talking to the Afghan government, something the Taliban have
been resisting so far on the grounds that Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s
government is a puppet. The Taliban have expressed their readiness to meet
Imran Khan when invited for talks. The prime minister has also hinted that two
western hostages (one American) long held by the Taliban are likely to be
released soon. In turn, the US has restored technical support for Pakistan’s
F-16 fleet. The Pakistani Foreign Office’s spokesman Dr Mohammad Faisal has
emphasised the ties reset and the desire of both countries to move forward on
the basis of mutual respect. He noted that the ‘do more’ mantra was now
history, and a mechanism would be set up to follow up on the understanding
reached in Washington. Comprehensive talks would be held, focused on building a
broad-based and enduring partnership. Dr Faisal welcomed Trump’s mediation
offer on Kashmir while expressing surprise at India’s fierce reaction. China
and Turkey have welcomed the development and the former has reiterated its hope
that Pakistan and India can settle their mutual problems through dialogue.
There is no
denying the fact that Prime Minister Imran Khan and President Donald Trump struck
a good rapport but it remains to be seen if that is sufficient to restore a
rocky relationship that has seen more than its fair share of ups and downs. The
description usually used to describe Washington’s approach to relations with
Pakistan is ‘transactional’, which means the US has wooed Pakistan when its
interests so dictated and ‘dumped’ it when the immediate objective has been
achieved. The question now is, has that changed? Or is it the case that Washington
needs Islamabad to help pull its chestnuts out of the Afghan fire, and once
that is accomplished (with as much face saving for the US as possible), will
the relationship once more revert to its historical pattern? One should not
lose sight of the fact that the US is the pre-eminent global power whose interests
straddle the world. That diversity of interests (with the US’s hegemony
centre-stage) means the interests of the US and Pakistan can only flourish when
the two countries’ policies are aligned and converging. Starting from our
becoming part of the US alliance against communism in the shape of SEATO and
CENTO in the 1950s to the twists and turns in the alliance during the Afghan
wars, the divergences between the two sides have been just as evident as the
convergences. Islamabad claims the right of a relationship based on mutual respect,
but the ground reality is that a relationship between a superpower and a third
world country inherently implies elements of a clientist outcome. Whatever
softening up and actual or declared easing of restrictions and help for
Pakistan is being mooted by Washington presently will only be really tested
when the Afghan imbroglio (hopefully) is out of the way. It is only then that
the soft cooings on either side will be truly tested, verified, or negated.
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