Pakistan and the United States become strangers

Wading through Pakistan-US relations and keeping them on track, even at the best of times, is a challenge. The nature and confusion emanating from the US withdrawal from Afghanistan has further exposed the fragility of this relationship. The Taliban victory seriously tests Pakistan’s long and strained bilateral relationship with America.

As early as the 1950s, the interests of US-Pakistan relations were only partially served when “each side used the other to advance its own agenda which negatively impacted the interests of the other” writes Tauqir Hussain, a former Pakistani diplomat. Therefore, whenever the immediate needs of the United States were met, Pakistan was dropped. This happened especially after the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan in 1989, when the United States imposed nuclear sanctions on Pakistan.

Now the Biden administration has once again turned noticeably away from Pakistan. Washington has chosen to barely stay in talks with Islamabad since pulling out of Afghanistan last summer.

The United States continues to blame the Pakistani military for supporting non-state actors, including the Taliban. And yet, every American dignitary visiting Pakistan rushes to pay a courtesy call on the army chief of staff and meets with civilian leaders only as a formality. While this may indicate that the United States is courting those who stick to its agenda, it has the effect of downplaying the importance of civilian leadership in the face of the overbearing military presence in Pakistan.

A significant number of US policymakers are re-examining US relations with Pakistan. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley assured Congress that the administration was reviewing the role Pakistan has played in recent years and the role that states United would like him to play in the future. Twenty-two Republican lawmakers have proposed a bill in Congress which includes an assessment of the Pakistani government’s support for the Taliban between 2001 and 2020.

Wendy Sherman, the Deputy Secretary of State and the highest-ranking US official to visit Pakistan since Biden took office, explained it all in October 2021. Departing from Mumbai for Pakistan, in response to the question of a journalist, she says “We don’t see ourselves building our broad relationship with Pakistan and we have no interest in going back to the days of a hyphenated India, Pakistan.” She added that her trip to Pakistan was to accomplish a “specific and narrow objective” – ​​referring to Afghanistan.

There is an almost unanimous view in Pakistan that instead of acknowledging its own flawed policy and the botched execution of the Afghan campaign, the United States finds it convenient to scapegoat Pakistan. US policy still looks at Pakistan through an Afghan prism and wants Pakistan with a specific purpose of counterterrorism operations on the horizon in Afghanistan. Meanwhile, Pakistan is seeking broader geoeconomics-focused relations.

This short-termism towards Pakistan is the biggest grievance against the United States. Strangely, Pakistan’s political planners, despite understanding that US policy preferences lie elsewhere, continue to cling to their desire to remain in the American-ruled world.

The United States also appears annoyed that Prime Minister Imran Khan applauded the Taliban victory and, with his typical frankness, described Pakistan’s service provider relationship with the United States as ‘crooked’.

Now that the Biden administration’s foreign policy priorities are clear, there is little chance of a significant shift in its stance toward Pakistan. Likewise, the United States is now wrong to expect Pakistan to remain a service-providing state and sacrifice its vital security interests.

The starkly different geopolitical realities and growing alignment between China and Pakistan also cast a shadow over US policy toward Pakistan. The United States has made no secret of its displeasure with Pakistan’s joining China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor is the BRI’s largest project at $62 billion. Its completion will release Chinese energy supplies from the choke points of Hormuz and Malacca. While the United States courted India, Pakistan, out of necessity, moved closer to China. In the face of US embargoes, Pakistan now depends almost entirely on China for its military supplies.

Pakistan has multiple interests related to relations with the United States, apart from strategic interests. A nuclear-armed state of over 220 million people cannot simply be abolished. The United States should realize the necessity and benefits of relations with Pakistan.

Sajjad Ashraf was an Adjunct Professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore from 2009 to 2017. He was a member of Pakistan’s Foreign Service from 1973 to 2008 and served as Ambassador to several countries.

Melvin B. Baillie