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US aid cut to Pakistan : THREE EDITS, Sept 3, 2018

  1. US aid cut : edit in Dawn, September 3rd, 2018
    The US has delivered an object lesson in how not to conduct diplomacy.Mere days ahead of a short visit by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to Pakistan, the US Department of Defence has announced a permanent aid cut to Pakistan of $300m. The move has surely been coordinated across the Trump administration and now what remains to be seen is if Secretary Pompeo will try and bully the Pakistani leadership during his visit or if he will be deployed in a more traditional good-cop diplomatic role.

The aid cut-off is not new and has already been factored into budgetary estimates, so perhaps the measure is designed to placate hawks inside the Trump administration. But it will surely rankle in Pakistan and rightly so: more than the aid, it is the hectoring and aggressive tone of the Trump administration towards Pakistan combined with an apparent disregard for a peace process in Afghanistan that is a problem.

Yet, Pakistan ought to react cautiously and avoid unnecessary public wrangling. The US aid cut-off has come on the heels of Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif’s warm visit to Pakistan in which the latter emphasised its support for Iran and the nuclear deal that the US unilaterally pulled out of. That could be a factor in the Trump administration’s apparent pique at Pakistan. Moreover, Pakistan is almost sure to shortly turn to international creditors and the US has already indicated a willingness to overtly bring geopolitics into the workings of the IFIs.

But a cautious public reaction can be accompanied by a robust defence in private. The focus in Afghanistan should be a peace process with the Afghan Taliban, and while Pakistan has consistently expressed an interest in supporting a peace process, it can only do so much in the face of political disarray in Afghanistan and reluctance in the US to engage the Taliban in dialogue.

The US and Taliban may be locked in a different kind of race now: both are trying to maximise their advantage on the battlefield to win greater concessions from the other side at the dialogue table. If that is in fact what the US is aiming for, Pakistan can emphasise the role it can play to facilitate a dialogue among the Taliban, the Afghan government and the US.

The longest war in US history will not change dramatically in military terms, but political support for the war in the US can only further deteriorate. President Donald Trump clearly only reluctantly agreed to extend the war in Afghanistan and is reported to be frustrated with the lack of progress that he was promised by his generals. Secretary Pompeo and US national security and military officials ought to stop pursuing counterproductive strategies and work towards the common international goal of ending the war in Afghanistan and blunting the IS threat. www.dawn.com/news/1430667/us-aid-cut

 

2. Do more? No more: edit in Daily Times, September 3rd 2018

The latest blow to deteriorating Pak-US relations came in form of the United States Department of Defence announcing a withdrawal of aid worth$300m under the Coalition Support Fund. Since Donald Trump’s resolve of “no more” aid to Pakistan in January 2018,the total aid suspended under various projects now amounts to $800m.Time and again, the US has criticised Pakistan of providing safe havens to terrorist outfits, which the US claims is the sole reason for instability in Afghanistan. Wit regard to the recent aid cuts, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White Press Secretary stated, “our goal is that we know that they can do more to stop terrorism, and we want them to do that”.

However this statement and the ones directed at Pakistan for the past many months fail to take two imperative facts into perspective. Firstly, that the Afghan militancy problem today is a consequence of the US radicalizing Afghan and Pakistani Mujhadeen groups to fight the Soviets during the Cold War. Perhaps in the blame game of who funds terrorists, a journey down memory lane, will remind the world of who armed and funded the Taliban in the first place. Secondly, a report titled Body Count: Casualty Figures after 10 Years of the ‘War on Terror’ concluded that over 80,000 Pakistanis have lost their lives for the American war since 2001. Surprisingly, this figure and the fact that Pakistan opened its borders to Afghan refugees fleeing the US invasionare rarely mentioned during the “do more” mantra.The US seems to be solely blaming Pakistan for the constant presence of the Taliban, despite being unable to eradicate the Taliban themselves after seventeen years of war.

As the US has started to reduce aid, trainings for Pakistan its relations with India have improved. While that serves the US security interests in Asia, Pakistan is concerned. Given the recent trajectory of events, many analysts have pointed out towards the enforcement of negative sanctions. These could range from targeted restrictions in the international community, loan blockades and more. This however might not inspire Pakistan towards “good behavior” as the US assumes – instead will just push them towards Russia, China and Iran. With all that has been said and done, Pakistan needs to react to this latest development with caution. Pakistan should not change its stance on exploring mutually beneficial avenues for Pak-US bilateral ties. While the US states that it is willing to renegotiate once Pakistan fulfills its promised obligations -it needs to realise that its current strategy is not likely to work. Pakistan is a sovereign, nuclear-armed state and cannot be treated like a ‘misbehaving’ child who can be punished and rewarded at will. It is time that both sides take stock of things and during the upcoming visit of US Secretary of the State, avenues for constructive engagement be opened up. It is in the US interest to work with Pakistan and vice versa. Hardline populism in Pakistan will not work either for it is too important a relationship to be forsaken. https://dailytimes.com.pk/291921/do-more-no-more/

 

3. Demanding Do More: edit in The Nation, Sept 3, 2018
Amid the hopes that bilateral relations between Pakistan and the United States (US) will normalise, the ties have received yet another blow as the US military is seeking to reallocate $300 million in aid to Pakistan. The reprogramming of the funds is the latest move of Pentagon in coercing Pakistan to do more against the terrorists and militant outfits that America holds responsible for the insurgency in Afghanistan. The move of Pentagon has come just a few days before US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo’s visit to Islamabad.

While Imran Khan, Prime Minister of Pakistan, has already hinted that Islamabad will continue cooperating with Washington, much of how bilateral relations take shape in future will become clear after Pompeo’s visit. However, James Mattis, US military chief, who will also accompany Pompeo has already made it clear in a statement given a few days ago that the “primary part” of the talks with the government in Islamabad would be convincing Pakistan to do more in the fight against terrorists.

Imran Khan who has remained a vocal critic of American adventurism abroad will be dealing with the US officials this time. His position on American wars is not naïve. Many prominent scholars of international affairs, instead of blaming Pakistan for America’s failure in its war on terror, think that American intervention is the cause of all instability in Kabul. After all, for Islamic State’s growing influence in Afghanistan, no one else but hawkish American policy of invading country after country is to blame.

Contrary to the belief of the White House that a determined crackdown on terror outfits by Pakistani forces will decide the outcome of the seventeen years old war in Afghanistan, the roots of instability in Kabul lie in American’s foreign ambitions. Pompeo’s visit should find new vistas for bilateral cooperation rather than making Pakistan scapegoat for its failures in Afghanistan. https://nation.com.pk/03-Sep-2018/demanding-do-more

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