WASHINGTON – In a breakthrough, Pakistan seek big diplomatic achievementin bilateral ties with United States.
The Trump administration has approved a resumption of Pakistan’sparticipation in a coveted U.S. military training and educational programmore than a year after it was suspended, the State Department said onThursday.
The decision to resume Islamabad’s participation in the InternationalMilitary Education and Training Program, or IMET – for more than a decade apillar of U.S.-Pakistani military ties – underscores warming relations thathave followed meetings this year between U.S. President Donald Trumpand Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan.
Washington also has credited Islamabad with helping to facilitatenegotiations on a U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan. The talksrecently resumed between the United States and the Taliban, who U.S.officials say receive sanctuary and other aid from the Pakistan’smilitary-led intelligence agency. Pakistan denies the charge.
The State Department administers IMET. It was a small facet of U.S.security aid programs for Pakistan worth some $2 billion that remainsuspended on orders that Trump abruptly issued in January 2018 to compelthe nuclear-armed South Asian nation to crackdown on Islamist militants.
After an attack earlier this year by a Pakistan-based extremist group thatkilled at least 40 Indian paramilitary troops, U.S. officials called onIslamabad to take “sustained and irreversible action” against militantsoperating from its territory.
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A State Department spokeswoman said in an email that Trump’s 2018 decisionto suspend security assistance authorized “narrow exceptions for programsthat support vital U.S. national security interests.” The decision torestore Pakistani participation in IMET was “one such exception,” she said.
The program “provides an opportunity to increase bilateral cooperationbetween our countries on shared priorities,” she added. “We want tocontinue to build on this foundation through concrete actions that advanceregional security and stability.”
A second U.S. official said on condition of anonymity that Pakistan was inthe process of selecting officers to send to the United States.
