WASHINGTON: As US-Pakistan relations face a stiff test following PresidentDonald Trump’s Twitter tirade against Islamabad, foreign policy expertshave warned Washington against implications of losing Pakistan as an ally.
While US officials have defended Trump’s stance, as well as the step towithhold $255 million in assistance for Pakistan, several experts havewords of caution for the United States in view of Washington’s multipleinterests in the region, including the ongoing fight against terror inAfghanistan.
“We are driving Pakistan into China’s arms. Frankly, Trump could drivePakistan away from its warm Cold War friendship with America, towards fullservice to the Chinese. The Chinese want, and are getting, important portsfor their expanding navy to use in the Indian Ocean, as well as economicties,” Prof Charles Tiefer, who teaches law at the University of Baltimore,wrote in Forbes magazine.
In his first message on the first day of the New Year, Trump unleashed avolley of allegations against Pakistan, saying the South Asian country hasnot done enough in return for US aid.
A day after Trump’s tweet, US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley confirmedthe White House is withholding $255 million aid for Pakistan and defendedthe US criticism of Islamabad, alleging it played a ‘double game’ with theUnited States for years.
Islamabad has rejected the allegations, emphasising its contributions andsacrifices in the fight against terror.
But Tiefer, who served as a commissioner at the Commission on WartimeContracting in Afghanistan, also cautioned against the fallout of worseningUS-Pakistan relations, especially of the United States losing key Americansupply routes that pass through Pakistan to reach landlocked Afghanistan.
“And, Pakistan can make it difficult logistically to support the Americanmission in Afghanistan,” he wrote.
In a CNN appearance, Dr Akbar Ahmed, Pakistan’s former ambassador to theUnited Kingdom, reminded policymakers why it is important for Washingtonthat Islamabad remains on its side.
“For the United States, Pakistan itself is important, always has been. Acountry of 200 million, nuclear and so on. More importantly, the UnitedStates has interactions and relations with India, China, Afghanistan, andIran in a negative sense—all countries that are neighbours and aroundPakistan.
“And in each country that I have named, Pakistan becomes a vital factor forthe United States, as a key ally or a potential troublemaker,” he said.
Dr Ahmed, who is chair of Islamic Studies at Washington’s AmericanUniversity, instead called for a diplomatic approach to addressing theissues affecting the relationship.
“So I think it would be prudent and wise for the diplomats to try to patchthis up as soon as possible, and not to push Pakistan into arms of otherregional powers, who are quite willing and able to take Pakistan on board,”he said.
He said despite longstanding US allegations against Pakistan allowingmilitants to operate from its territory, the two countries have a lot tobuild on, including Islamabad’s efforts to stay on democratic course andcontinue its fight against terrorists against all odds.
“So the strategy should be to really reinforce those elements that Americastands for and promotes and President Trump [also] believes in—goodgovernance, accountability, lack of corruption. Those are the things thatwe should be emphasising in Pakistan, not abusing and calling the entirenation deceitful and lying because Pakistan will immediately respondwith anger. Because this is what they are saying, they are saying ‘we havelost 50 to 60,000 people killed after 9/11 in fighting the war on terroralong with the Americans, and we are being asked to do more and more andmore, we are fed up.’
“And that is a dangerous situation to lose an ally in that way,” he said.
Meanwhile, CNN national security analyst Samantha Vinograd pointed out thatdiplomacy is not served well with contradictory messaging.
“Just a few weeks ago, Trump praised Pakistan for starting to ‘respect theUnited States.’ The incoherence of our Pakistan policy works against ourinterests because it undermines the power of our hypothetical stick or thesweetness of our purported carrots,” she said.
That question was also raised at the State Department briefing on Mondaywhen a reporter pointed out that the US praised Pakistani cooperation inrecovery of Canadian-American couple a few months ago and now it iscriticising the country.
Spokesperson Heather Nauert said Pakistan can certainly ‘do more’ andstands to gain from additional cooperation with the United States.
“Pakistan is an important partner. We have a lot of issues in thatregion. Pakistan knows that we all know that, and we try to work carefullytogether on some of those issues, but Pakistan—I don’t want to say thatPakistan can do more, but Pakistan knows what it needs to do. We expectPakistan—and we’ve made clear, and the President has made clear in the pastalso through his new strategy that was announced back in August about theAsia—the new Asia strategy—that the United States expects Pakistan to takedecisive action against the Haqqani Network and other militants who areoperating from its soil. And they need to better—to earn, essentially, themoney that we have provided in the past in foreign military assistance,they need to show that they are sincere in their efforts to crack down onterrorists,” she said.
Written by: Ali Imran